A Day In A Life
by LyzabethSay
Summary: It started with a murder and ended in a way they would never have expected. From a B/E, to murder, to stalking, to kidnapping; Flack and Angell endured it all. FA, SM, DL – fluff, suspense and a lot of cliff-hangers. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1: A Day in a Life

**A day in a life**

**Summery: **A day in a life of Jessica Angell (Actually it's a morning in the life of Jessica Angell – It's not 100% complete yet)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **This was a bit random – I wanted to do some sort of empathetic piece and I don't think I achived it well. Well, actually I don't know what is an empathetic piece? Anyway, ejoy!

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Contrary to the fact that her job woke her up at 5 in the morning on most days, she was not a morning person. But the bad habit of actually waking to arrive to work on time got the better of her when she was rudely awoken by the beams of morning sunlight that poked through the blinds of her bedroom window. Her attempt to pull the covers over her failed when her cell, which was conveniently placed in the living room, began to ring.

She stumbled her way through randomly dished out clothes that littered her floor only to find her cell hidden under a half eaten pizza box from the night before. She lazily flung her self onto the couch which was occupied mainly by remote controls and empty DVD boxes. Her late night was taking a toll on her since her idea of living it up the night before her day off consisted of renting about 20 odd movies and downing a 6 pack all to herself. She hadn't had a day to in a while now and she realized how much she needed it as she lay on her couch surveying her apartment.

'Angell,' she finally said answering the call.

'You took your time, Jess,' Flack said from the other side of the line.

'So,' she started lifting a cold slice of pepperoni pizza to her lips, 'it's you who wakes me in the middle of my sleep.'

'You're not up yet?'

'Well, I am now thanks to you,' she flung the crust of the pizza towards a full rubbish bin that was placed at the other end of her couch but it bounce off the top and somersaulted to the ground next to it. 'What can I do for you anyway?'

'Well, I was wondering – day off, 12 o'clock, deli down the road?' she could see Flack was hinting at a lunch date and she couldn't help but wonder about his intentions.

'Oh I don't know. I've got lots of work to do,' she wanted to play with his words, force him to beg her to come out with him. She found pleasure in teasing him and it reminded her about the time in high school when she used to toy with guys who fancied her.

'Aw, come on Jess. Don't deprive me of my Angell time,' she let out of silent laugh at his comment but didn't say anything – she needed more that just that to shift her out of her apartment. '24 hours of not seeing you and I'll just have to go over there myself.'

'You really had no game that time, Don,' she could feel her self heating up at her words. It just gave evidence to the rest of her body that this guy really means something to her. But he was right, they hadn't spend more than 2 hours away form each other in the past week and it seemed her day off wasn't going to change anything.

In her mind she desperately wanted to say yes but when she took another look at the mess she called her apartment she realized what she'd have to do.

'We'll see,' she said.

'Jess,' Flack pleased for her at the other end of the line, 'please.'

'I'm not kidding when I said I have work to do,' she felt sorry and wanted to sallow her words back in and say something else. It was a lame excuse not to go out but she hated to admit it was the truth.

'Alright, I'll call you then,' she had sympathy for him since she understood his urges to see her – she wanted to see him.

'Okay,' she merely replied as the tone at the other end proved he'd hung up. She knew why he didn't hold on longer after that. The need to speak to her, to communicate would have stopped both of them from doing any real work and by the looks of things work needed to be done.

Pulling her ass of the couch and she started with the living room. She cleared up the pizza boxes and beer cans before moving on to placing the correct DVDs in the correct boxes. She decided to move to her bedroom before anything else. Picking up clothes along the way, she bundled them up and tossed them into a laundry basket by her door. She gave a good stretch before opening the blinds to bustling New York streets below her. There were few pedestrians but hundreds of bright, yellow cabs lined up on the curb waiting for passengers.

She decided a little bit of fresh air would probably wake up her system but upon opening to the window the smell of fake Italian meatball sauce flooded her bedroom. With all her power as a police officer she was still unable to force the Little Italy restaurant, opposite her condo, to do something about the appalling stench that constantly got drained out of its kitchen.

She shut the window with a sigh of failure before retiring to the bathroom. If she was going to anything she'd rather do it clean. She stepped into the warm shower that poured over her body. Resting her head against the wall she felt she couldn't be bothered with soap due to her lack of enthusiasm on the rest of her day. Maybe going out for lunch with Flack wasn't such a bad idea after all. Not that it was one at the start but if she got all her work done in her apartment she might even be able to meet him in the city for a little mid-afternoon shopping. She grinned at herself as if she'd already accomplished half the goals she set for that day when she jump out of the shower and into a pink fully towel resting on a railing.

Drying off she walked to her closet and pulled the most comfortable pair of clothes she owned – a pair of black sweat pants and an oversized shirt. She'd planned to do house work so there was no need to impress anyone with a pair of skin tight frilly knickers and an over padded bra. She laughed at the thought of it as she remember Flack mentioning a housekeeping company that supplied blonds in bikinis to clean your apartment. Something she knew men often had fantasies about.

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Angell stood at the door way of her apartment assessing her achievements. Her floor was vacuumed down, her pillows fluffed, plates and dishes were put away. She compared the joy of finishing her housework to solving a case or watching a prep walk away in handcuffs. She felt proud and confident and accomplished. It was her moment of joy, walking along the polished floor and gliding her fingers along smooth table tops. She entered her bedroom and closed her eyes as she took a deep breath of floral detergents she'd used. Everything was neat and tidy and in place except she realized for the pile of dirty laundry that leaked out of the laundry basket.

Giving a sigh of exhaust she picked up the laundry basket and heaved it across her hall to the door. She dragged it down the stairs and into the brightly lit laundry room. There weren't many people in there. Just an old lady from the floor below Angell and someone she'd never met before. Angell had strange memories from inside the laundry room such as her and Flack's somewhat impromptu date which consisted of a pizza and lots of wet bed spreads. When Flack's sister needed a place to stay he graciously gave up his apartment for her and stayed over a Angell's but since Angell had yet to have a day off the only thing they could do was a trip to the launderette in the basement of her apartment to clean her sheets for him. A memory she will always remember when standing next to dryer no. 47.

'Jessica,' Ms. Croft, the old lady from the floor below asked, 'Could you be a kind soul and held me carry these to my apartment?'

'Of course,' Angell wasn't about to let an old lady suffer severer backache so she took the pile of clothes that lay on top of the dryer and carried it out of the door of the launderette.

Ms. Croft lived alone and was aged somewhere between 90 and a 101. Her granddaughter lived in Jersey and came down every once in a while to help her but it seems she hadn't been down in a while. Angell had only met Ms. Croft's granddaughter once when she was leaving her apartment and she could promise anyone she had never met a ruder girl in her life. Angelica was no different to the little rugrat from the series since she was spoilt, annoying and too self-absorbed for her own good. She didn't care for her grandmother and only came to New York to help her through her mothers request before she died.

Angell carefully placed one foot in front of another as she followed the quick Ms. Croft up the stairs. For someone her age Angell was surprised with her ability to walk up the stairs so quickly. Ms. Croft fumbled with her keys for a long while as Angell stood leaning against the wall next to Ms. Croft's door as she inserted the key into the slot.

'There we go,' she said as the door flung open as a whiff of must and dusty air escaped her apartment. 'Just come inside and place them on the dinning table.'

Angell tried to resist the urge to lift her hand and cover her mouth. It was a horrible smell, like raw eggs and stale milk. She could swear something had made a home and died somewhere in the apartment.

'Just here?' she asked reaching the dinning room table.

'Yes, thank you,' Ms. Croft said from the kitchen. As Angell leaned forward to place the pile of clean washing onto the table her hand lightly brushed against the surface of it leaving transfer of a sticky, gooey substance on the back of her hand. Angell shook her hand frantically hopping it would come off but stopped the moment she saw Ms. Croft reentering the dinning room with a cup of coffee.

'Oh, that's brilliant. Thank you Jessica,' Ms. Croft said taking a seat in one of the old moth eaten chairs along the table.

'Welcome,' Angell said wrapping her already sticky hands around a greasy chipped mug. As she lifted the mug to her lips she stopped just short as her eyes were focused on a small shiny black insect floating around on the surface. She felt, for the second time that day, the urge to stop her self from hurling out over Ms. Croft's floor.

'So, how's work at the moment?' Ms. Croft was kind and thoughtful for someone her age and with her condition.

'Wonderful, thanks, 'Angel said, though she really doubted Ms. Croft knew what her job exactly was.

'I think it's brave of you young girls going out to work. When I was a lass we would never dream of something like that.' Angell couldn't help wondering how lonely Ms. Croft's childhood must have been back in thoughs days. A woman's daylight hours would be spent cleaning the house, taking care of children and looking for the right man to marry at the young age of 14. She couldn't imagine her life like that. She could imagine not waking up at odd hours to arrive at work in, something Ms. Croft still to this day would never have worn out, pants and a jacket.

'Listen, I should go,' Angell pointed out firstly because she couldn't stand the smell and state of Ms. Croft's apartment and secondly she knew her washing would be done by now. She walked over to the kitchen, placed her mug in the sink and closed Ms. Croft's front door behind her before whipping her hands over her shirt to take way any germs that might have taken residence on her since she'd entered Ms. Croft's apartment.

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**A/N: **Yeah, hope you got something from that. Probably not. I've been over my head lately with school work and for some reason I keep making more and more CSI NY MVs. (Do check them out if you've got a moment youtube/lyzabethsay) I would like to continue this when I have more time so it will be complete for now until I have some more free time. As for my other one too. Thanks enjoy and comment.


	2. Chapter 2: What happens after?

**What happens after?**

**Summery: **What was meant to be a quite day all changes the moment Angell steps out of the apartment?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **I thought I was carry this on only because I LOVE Angell and Flack so much it would be a shame not to =D

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Angell stood outside of Ms. Croft door and gave a deep sigh of relief. Right now she just wanted to get everything sorted out an in one piece before she could take her long hot shower and get ready to meet Flack.

But just as she reached the stair case she suddenly heard a loud scream. The scream was short but loud and terrifying enough to stop Angell in her tracks. She froze for a moment wondering where the noise came from and as she slowly turned around there came another sound.

There was a loud BANG, like a gun and Angell could hear it was coming from a few floors below. In a panicked state of what to do Angell froze dead in her stop in the hall. Her minded debated with her body about rushing upstairs to grab her gun and badge or running down stairs to see what was wrong. After what seemed like moments she pulled together enough courage to shift her whole body into running up the last flight of stairs to her apartment. Quickly flinging the door open she rummaged through a purse by the door to pull out three things – her badge, gun and handphone.

Dashing out of her apartment she skipped several steps on her way down and dialed 911 at the same time. Her mind was racing with a million possibilities of what could have happened. Had someone been shot? Was it a bunch of kids playing around? Why does someone in her building even have a gun and why would they fire it?

Finally getting through to the emergency service on the other end of the phone she said, 'This is detective Angell. I have a 1013 at 17 on Rockchester and 5th. A gun has been fired and a civilian is possibly injured.'

Reaching the laundry room of her building she carefully tiptoed her way through the cold dark hallway towards the door. Slowly edging the door open she could see the feet of a lady lying on the ground. Quickly giving the door one hard put she raised her gun to an assailant bent over the body.

'NYPD freeze!' she shouted at him but the moment he saw he grabbed his gun and started running towards the back door of the Laundromat. 'Stop!' Angell cried out but the moment she reached the door he was gone - down and out of the alleyway into the bustling streets of New York

'Shit,' she cried out as she entered back into the Laundromat. Crouching down next to the body she pressed her fingers against the ladies neck to feel a pulse. She could feel her own heart stop when the lady's skin felt cold and lifeless underneath her fingers. She fell backwards to sit next to the body and watched helplessly as the lady's blood pool started to grown around her.

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'What the hell happened?' Flack was the first to arrive. He burst through the doors of the laundry room and ran to Angell's side. He was worried, practically scared for her when he heard over the intercom in his car that there had been a shooting at her residence.

Angell hadn't said a word. The officers worked around her, cleaning the scene of any other residences that had come down to see what the fuss was about. She sat alone and in silence on the hard plastic chairs in the center of the Laundromat watching the colour slowly and painfully drain from the young woman's face. She couldn't believe how this had happened. Only moment's before had she been in there loading her own laundry into the machine when she had to leave for Ms. Croft. Had she of stayed or left Ms. Croft's apartment early she could have prevented all this. Had she stayed here she might have been the victim.

'Angell,' she hadn't noticed Flack's presence until he crouched down in front of her and held her hands tightly in his. 'Jess?'

She looked up to meet his eyes and he could see the amount of fear and sorrow that filled them. She was upset, maybe she had even cried but he couldn't understand why, 'Is everything alright?'

'I wasn't fast enough,' she whispered under her breath. 'I was scared when I heard the gun shot.'

'What do you mean?' Flack piercing blues eyes burnt into her brown ones as she told him her story.

'I didn't know what to do. When I heard the shot I froze. I wanted to run and help, I knew something wrong had happened. I just couldn't decide what to do. I could have saved her,' she lifted her hands slowly up and placed them around Flack neck pulling him into a tight embrace. He lifted his arms and fitted them around her waist holding her close.

He knew how it felt. He knew the pain she went through wishing she was fast enough, wishing she could have been there to save her.

'Everything will be alright,' he whispered into her ear.

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'Whoa, what happened?' Danny said entering the Laundromat along with this silver CSI case.

'Gun shot victim, took one to the chest,' Don informed him. He watched as Danny's eyes left the DB and trailed its way along the floor to see Angell sitting on the hard cold benches being comforted by Stella.

'She okay?' he indicated to Angell.

'Yeah, little shaken up,' Don shifted his body slightly and out of the corner of his eyes watched as Angell spoke to Stella.

'I feel bad Stella,' Angell said.

'Why? You didn't do anything wrong?'

'I wasn't fast enough. I froze. I was scared. I'm not meant to be scared,' Angell shook her head disappointed in her self for her display early.

'It's not your fault. You've got to know that,' Stella held Angell's shoulders tightly in a hug.

'I didn't know her. I'd never really seen her before,' Angell smiled to herself and gave a sarcastic laugh.

'What?'

'How do you not know someone that lives in your building? I've been here for 5 years now and I don't know anyone. I've never seen her before even.'

'Angell,' Stella said pushing her self away from her, 'when my apartment caught fire and I ran outside with the rest of them, I didn't know who any of them were. Okay, granted it was because I taught myself to be reserved and just seclude myself from everyone but I know how it feels to wish you'd made more of an effort.'

Angell shook her head silently. She was thankful for the older detective being there for her. She felt she needed the comfort. It was different she found just sitting than being the one surveying a crime scene. When she was in charge she taught herself not to care. This was just a job. This was how life was. She would wake up, arrive at a crime scene and leave unaffected. Now, being here witnessing what she did made her feel angry and she hated her self for it so much.

'Angell?' a strong, deep voice came from above her. As she sat straight in her chair she looked up at Mac towering over her.

'Hey,' she called back.

'You alright?'

'Yeah,' she said smiling and counting the amount of times she was going to be asked that within the next 48 hours.

'I was wondering if you could run me through what you were doing before you came down here. Just so we get an idea of what might have happened. Maybe, you passed the killer and didn't know it?'

'Maybe,' she told her self. Gathering all her strength she pulled her self off the bench and straightened her clothes. She led Mac out of the Laundromat and up the cold, damp staircase leading to the ground floor. There stood Flack interviewing the front desk manager when he spotted them.

'Super says he didn't notice anything suspicious until he heard the shot. Quite morning apparently,' he said.

'I'm just getting Angell to run me through what she was doing right before the shot,' Mac said.

'I'll follow.'

Angell walked up the 2nd flight of stairs leading to the first floor. 'I was carrying a basket of laundry for an elderly lady on the floor below me,' she said as the reached the second floor. 'This is her apartment. I was in there maybe 5 to 10 mins before I walked out.'

Angell walked towards Ms. Croft's apartment door, 'I came out and stood here,' she faced the hallway with her back to the door, 'and just as I was about to walk back down stairs I heard it.'

'The shot?' Mac asked.

Angell nodded.

'I stood here for about 5 seconds or maybe a little more and then I ran up to my own apartment,' she turned from her spot and walked a few paces until she reached the staircase to the third floor, 'I ran upstairs, got my stuff then ran back down.'

Angell peered up the stairs to her own floor curiously. There was something not right up there.

'So, you started to dial 911 on your way down?' Mac asked holding a flashlight to the wall of the hallway.

Angell didn't answer but started to walk up the third floor staircase slowly.

'Jess,' Don called after her. 'Jessie?'

'Something not right. There is a draft coming down the staircase,' Angell started to creep further and further up the stairs.

'Yeah, so?' Don asked looking at Mac. Turning back to the staircase they pulled out their guns and followed slowly behind Angell.

As they reached the third floor, Angell walked along the hallway to the first door on her right. Flack remembered from a previous visit that that apartment was Angell's own. He could see a small pool of light flooding out of her doorway indicating the door was open ajar. Reaching the top of the staircase he positioned himself next to the door gun up at the ready.

As Angell moved closed her raised out a hand and pushed her door open. Moving into the doorway and as the sun poured down on her, her eyes scanned her apartment.

'Holy shit!' she shouted looking in.

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**A/N: **Was that a cliffhanger or my really bad writing? XP Yeah, well this is kind of an improve plot since I have NO IDEA where it's going at the moment so please be patient while the little typists in my brain come up with an interesting continuation. XP Comments help me improve so please distribute kindly!


	3. Chapter 3: In the middle of it all

**In the middle of it all**

**Summery: **A dead body, a mysterious B&E, a hunting revelation – how much more can Angell take?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **Yay, my next installment – longer A/N at the end thanks!

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_As Angell moved closed her raised out a hand and pushed her door open. Moving into the doorway__ and as the sun poured down on her, her eyes scanned her apartment. _

'_Holy shit!' she shouted looking in. _

Angell stood at the doorway of her apartment staring at the devastation in front of her. The moment she looked past the gap of the door she knew something like this would happen. The pain and angry that flew through her at that point was incomprehensible. She could feel the blood drain from her face, she could feel the pulsing beat of her heart quicken, she could feel her fingers slowly becoming stone cold. Everywhere she looked all she could see was something worse. She waited for that ray of sunlight to beam down on a little bit on sanction but nothing appeared. If her feelings could be classified in terms of weather, this was a flood hitting her a thousand times harder than she'd ever felt in her life.

'I don't believe this,' she muttered under her breath as she started walking through her apartment. In the hall it was just books pulled down off it's self but in the kitchen broken pieces of china scattered along the marble floor. The living room was the worst out of all - clothes lay everywhere, furniture moved, papers still flying through the air. It looked more like someone had ransacked it.

'What happened here?' Flack asked putting his gun back into his holster. He had been into Angell's apartment once before and even though, then, she confessed to not having enough time to clean it up it was fairly more neater than his but now, the mess was more beyond anything Angell could handle.

'You were rather progressive this morning,' he said sarcastically looking around. Angell was already further up the hall picking up clothes that lay in the middle of the walk way but the moment Flack spoke she tossed them back at him hitting him square on the side of the head.

'This isn't funny!' she said to him. 'Someone's been through here. I swear I just spent my whole morning cleaning this place up. It was not like this when I left just now.'

'When you left?' Mac asked her.

'To do my laundry,' she pointed out collecting items strewed across the floor, 'I went down, helped the old lady then all of this happened. Why would someone want to break into my apartment and go through it? I mean, what were they looking for?' Angell dropped down onto her couch and rested her head in her hands. 'Why does this have to happen to me? Why today?'

Turning from the kitchen Flack watched Angell sink her self into her settee. Putting down the broken bits of plate he walked into the living room and sat down next to her. She wasn't crying but was more, lamenting in today's tragedies which were thrust upon her unexpectedly. Running his hands up and down her shoulder he tried to be a comfort to her.

'When you left to do the laundry, did you lock the door?' Mac was standing by the front doorway inspecting items that were stashed along it. Pens, notebooks, keys were all tossed from the little light stand that stood next to the door. The draw had been pulled out and receipts, bills and postcards were dumped across the floor.

'What?' Angell asked back, not concentrating.

'Did you lock the door?'

'Of course I did,' she said looking up at him.

'Did you lock your door before you went down to inspect the shooting?' Mac bent over and pulled up a set of keys that were lying on the floor near the entrance.

Angell threw her hand back into her hands, 'I didn't… but… how was I meant to remember? I was so preoccupied with what happened down stairs. It just didn't occur to me!'

'Hey, hey. It's alright. These things happen,' Flack tried to calm her down but the day was taking a toll on her.

From the hall there came the soft clatter of heels as Stella appeared in Angell's doorway, she entered and looked around at the mess. She stared at Mac and without saying anything and understood what happened, 'Listen, why don't you spend the night at someone else's place - just until we get this all sorted out. A friend? A relative maybe? '

Angell pushed back her hair in frustration and rubbed her eyes, 'Yeah, okay,' she quietly and reluctantly got up and dragged her self to her room so she could rummage through the piles of clothes thrown out of her wardrobe for anything to wear.

'Jess,' Flack called for her quietly as he entered her room behind her. 'Look, I have a spare room if you are interested. My place is between the precinct and here so you can dash from one to the other whenever you like,' he gave her a warming smile, a pleading smile, asking her to follow him so he could make her feel better.

'Are you sure?' she asked looking deep into his eyes. 'I mean I don't want to be intruding into your life out side of work or anything.'

'What if I said, I would love you to intrude on my life outside of work?' his expression changed and he gave her a cheeky little smile.

Angell closed her eyes and nodded slowly trying to hide away her own smile - they both knew how much they adored each other. The flirting on the job, the bumps at the water cooler, the linking of eyes from across the precinct. They never admitted it and it was almost as if it didn't need saying but ever since the first time they sat together on the job and just talk… everything seemed natural, everything just flowed. She felt comfortable with him and he felt happy with her. She hadn't meant to but she noticed his lack of girlfriends within the past few months. She often wondered if it was because he was gearing himself to take her on a proper date or if New York had just run out of girls his type. Maybe, though, she was just becoming paranoid and that he just believed they were friends. Two people who worked together and occasionally went out for a beer. Maybe he saw nothing but friendship in her even though she saw the world in his eyes.

In the living room, Mac and Stella began processing the door area, collecting finger prints and trace where ever they could. There was a jogging and panting coming from the stairwell in the hall before Danny appeared at their scene.

Stopping dead at the door way he looked in and whistled, 'Someone's messy,' he said out of Angell's earshot. Stella stood and nudged Danny in the ribs. She was hard headed, alright and stood up for anyone – even a non-CSI homicide detective. Angell was her friend. They had gone out some nights when shift ended late. They told each other girly things guys would never understand. Stella felt Angell understood. She even knew about her and Flack and how much she cared for him. And in turn Angell knew about Stella and her feeling for a certain colleague. Angell was understanding and sympathetic and was someone you'd go to in your time of need. If anything ever came up, Stella would known exactly who to go to. So, now in Angell's time of need Stella hoped she would come to her.

'Someone must have been looking for something,' Mac mentioned as he put away his kit. 'Everything is turned up.'

'Do you think Angell kept any documents here? You know, anything that might be linked to a case?' Stella walked over to a white study desk littered with books and papers. In the middle was a distinct empty spot. Judging by the size of it Stella was sure a laptop used to sit in that exact position. 'Maybe she held information leading to a suspect?'

'But detectives never take home case files. We're advised to do all our reporting at the station,' Flack said reentering the living room.

'Maybe they didn't know that,' Mac mentioned walking over to Danny who was carefully rearranging photos that lay face down on a shelf. 'What are you thinking?'

'That this case and the one down stairs might be linked,' he said holding up a picture of Angell in a wooden frame. 'Does anyone else think that the vic downstairs has a slight resemblance to Jess?'

Everyone stood quietly for a moment and thought. They minded rewinded to two levels below and the crime scene they had just been processing. None of them had noticed it at first but the vic stood around 5' 9, had thick curly brown hair, and fair skin all similar to Angell's. To a shooter, from the back, they would both look exactly the same.

'It's possible,' Stella mentioned. 'But why would someone want to kill Angell?'

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**A/N: **My dad's getting worried that I am spending too much time writing for here than doing my homework… Am I? Do you think so? I don't know school never fascinated me much – well it didn't when I got into secondary and GCSEs at least. Oh well, exams are in May and I have loads of time to study… right? I dunno, we'll just have to see =D

Oh, btw y'all, if you are interested I am have something posted on my **Fictionpress **site. It's a short story I am hoping to enter for a compilation held by a sister school of mine. Tell me what you think about it yeah? Cool! I am hoping to add more short stories to it soon so that I have a variety to chooses from when submitting my piece but some help from you lot would certainly make my life so much easier =D

But yeah, this is FanFiction so tell me what you think about THIS piece! Thanks!


	4. Chapter 4: A Trip to see the Devil

**A Trip to see the Devil**

**Summery: **Flack takes Angell for a visit to the Captain.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **Sorry, this is really late. We had a bad lighting strike and it took out my computer, my modem and router! Luckily my dad's computer was not harmed so that is what I have been typing on. Though I did have to take my hard disk out of my computer and put it into my dad's one. But oh well, at least I have these to write even if I can't post them on the internet as often as you guys would like. Well, enjoy reading!

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They all stood in a circle in Angell's living room. Their expressions were all the same. The same cold, blank, worried faces painted with the horrifying feeling that someone might be out to get her.

It was only a theory at most. There was no solid evidence to back up Danny's assumptions but it seem liable. In a panic of the moment, it was absolutely possible for the shooter to mistake Angell and their vic but then to kill the victim and go through Angell's apartment didn't seem understandable especially if she saw him run out the back of the Laundromat herself.

But the thing that worried everyone the most was, what if Danny's theory was correct? What happens if the shooter went down to the Laundromat with the intention of killing Angell? Was there someone out there now, watching her? Waiting for the right moment to strike again? All they could do was follow the evidence and hope that something might lead them to Angell's safety.

'Hey,' came a small voice from behind the group. Turning it was Angell, dressed smartly in jeans and a jacket carrying a duffle bag full of clothes. She looked quiet and not like her cheery little self. It was obvious she hadn't spent time getting herself ready but then most people would think she didn't need anything like make up to make herself look good. As they watched her walk forward towards them, they could see there was something vulnerable about her, something helpless.

'You're going to be okay! Alright?' Stella said comforting Angell as she reached them. She nodded silently and watched the blank faces of her friends. To her they were all just worried; they all just wanted her to feel safe and to be taken away from all the mess that was created around her. But to them, they knew something she didn't. They knew about her potential killer and how unsafe she would be no matter how near she was to a precinct. In sympathy for her, they all chose not to tell her. She'd already had a rough day so it for her own good - for her own safety. They didn't want her to worry any more than she already had.

Flack reached out to grab her bag and briskly touched her hand. Their eye shot up meeting each other as a spark of electricity sent little waves of butterflies to shoot up their arm. They both wondered how much more of this they could handle. How they were meant to stay together, in the same apartment, without feeling that slight bit uncomfortable. But Angell didn't really care right now. Maybe tomorrow something like that would start bothering her but right now, all she wanted was a nice, long car journey before arriving at her destination where she could rest in a nice, comfy bed and forget everything that had happened.

Flack walked Angell to his silver sedan parked outside her apartment building. There, there were hundred of people milling about. Officers tried to calm crowds, CSIs tried to do their jobs, residences wanted to get back into their apartments. It was already coming to the early evening and even the roads outside were packed with cars. As Angell walked onto the curb she looked back up at the building towering over her. There, in a small window to the left, she could see Ms. Croft looking out at the commotion below. She looked more angry than concerned when her eyes caught Angell's while she was pulling her curtains shut. Angell felt sad, maybe even a little sorry for her. She wasn't used to this much attention. She was probably annoyed by the amount of CSIs and detectives that called up to her apartment asking for statements on what she heard; what she saw. She knew nothing from what Angell could make out. She probably had no idea what happened. Or then again, maybe she did.

Flack had loaded Angell's bag into the boot of his car and was about to get into the driver's side. Looking over the top of the car he watched as Angell craned her neck up to peer through what looked like her bedroom window.

'Don't worry, Jess, they'll find who did it,' Flack tried to give a comforting smile but besides the wind picking up speed there was hordes of noise coming from the crowded streets.

Getting into the car Angell sat silently in the passenger seat as Flack got the car running. It was warm in the car, a change from the suddenly plummeting temperature outside. The wind was definitely picking up and they wouldn't be surprised if it even rained that evening. They sat for a moment longer; Flack had started the car but hadn't moved it.

'Jess,' he called out quietly brining her back from her own thoughts. 'I have to take you to the station first.' He knew her reaction would be like this, blank cold and frightened the same as it had been for hours.

'Why?' she asked, 'I gave my statement already.'

'The Captain called,' Flack dreaded saying the words and Angell dreaded hearing them. The Captain wasn't the friendliest of guys and was normally, constantly, hounding Flack and Angell to get more work down. Over loading them with cases was his favourite thing to do. He hated giving days off to his 'best' detectives, as he put it, and Flack knew he'd ask Angell to come into work the next day careless of what she had been through. 'He just wants to take a more formal statement. That's it.'

'That's never it,' she said. Flack looked at her sympathetically; he knew this couldn't be easy. The Captain was most probably doing this to spit her because according to him Angell has recently almost compromised a case. He took her off it saying she was a danger to the investigation and placed Flack as head. Angell hadn't hated Flack for it but she despised the Captain.

The rest of the journey was in silence. Angell stared out at the passing rain clouds as Flack kept his eye on the traffic. She watched the clouds pass like she watched her life past. One cloud after the other, one year after the other, she was wasting her life doing nothing.

It wasn't long until they reached the precinct. Angell got out herself not bothering to wait for Flack and walked straight in through the doors. She stopped though; the moment she walked in. Everyone's eyes were on her. Everyone in the precinct was looking at Angell. They had stopped what they were doing and just stared at her. Maybe it was Angell's paranoia, brought on by the day's events, but she was certain people were even whispering to each other. Flack entered the doors behind her and stood, surveying the crowds of gawking police officers. Clearing his throat it was as if they were all pulled rapidly out of a daydream. They suddenly became busy, bustling about the floor, chatting to people, making phone calls; all the normal things you would have imagine a police officers to do in a station.

Angell took a deep breath and waited another moment to watch everyone. Why had they done that? What had the Captain told them to make them stare at her like that? She wanted to believe she didn't care. She just wanted to get this over and done with before retreating home for a nice, long sleep so that she could wake up tomorrow and face the faces that, she knew, thought she was weak and vulnerable.

'Angell!' came a bellowing voice from a secluded office at the corner of the precinct. 'How are you? Alright? Not hurt or anything?' she knew the Captain was mocking her. That's what he did, make his staff feel insecure and small around him but she held her ground strong. She knew how to face someone like this – they had worked together for the past 6 months. She could still remember the first few weeks he'd been there though. Everyone in the precinct just wanted to walk up to him and punch his face in. But besides the fact that they all knew better, someone did. Not literally punch his face in but stand up to him. Tell him how much he didn't like his ways of policing. The Captain was from Washington – the other side of the states. Obviously, they seem to have different laws. The Captain just couldn't adapt to these new ones; or he just didn't want to.

'I'm fine. Thank you,' she replied to him, 'never been better.'

'Oh good,' he said not noticing her sarcastic tone of voice. 'Now, come. We must record you're statement as soon as possible so we do not keep Detective Flack waiting.' His smile was irritating. The sort that made you want to cringe. It reminded Angell, explicitly, of ones evil villains tried putting on when pretending to being nice. It never worked she remember telling herself; it just made them less likeable.

Angell followed the Captain to a small interrogation room just off the main area of the precinct. Angell sat opposite the Captain facing the stained black windows she normally stood behind.

It was different and definitely an experience she thought she would never have to go through. She hadn't committed a crime but she was still here being interviewed by someone she worked with. All of this just made her feel displaced. It was almost as if all of this was a bad dream and she'd wake up in a moment and realized she was still the detective she'd trained to be and that it was her interrogating someone and not vice versa.

'For the record, please state your name,' the Captain had hit the record button on the machine.

'Detective Jessica Angell,' she said.

'Can you please retell the accounts of your morning before and up to the shooting and burglary at your apartment that took place at 1.40 pm today?'

Angell took a deep breath and started, 'It was my day off so I had decided to do some cleaning. My apartment hadn't been tending to in weeks so I used the opportunity to get things sorted. At around 11.50 I had finished with my apartment and headed down to the Laundromat in the basement. I hadn't been there more that 10 or 15 minutes before an elderly lady from the floor below me asked if I could help her with taking some items up to her apartment. I wasn't heartless enough to say no so I followed her up,' Angell paused for a moment, watching the Captain occasionally look down at a notepad he had in front of him. He was taking notes.

'I was in her apartment for maybe 20 minutes before I realized my clothes would have been done in the washer by then. I left her apartment, stood in the hall for a moment and then I heard a scream. Following that I heard the shots. I contemplated what to do for a moment before I rushed up to my apartment and grabbed my gun. I went back down and saw the body. The assailant was still standing over her but the moment he saw me he ran. I was - '

'Let me stop you there,' the Captain said. Leaning in he looked at Angell with a smile. 'What did he look like?'

Angell couldn't help thinking how crazy this all was. He was just taunting her. It was as if retelling it was his way of committing that little bit of torture on her.

'I didn't see his face,' Angell replied bluntly back.

'No?' he asked raising an eyebrow at her. 'Maybe what he was wearing?'

'Black track suite bottoms and a black hoodie. The hood was covering his face.'

'Height? Weight?'

'5' 10. Maybe a little taller. I wouldn't be able to guess his weight but he was medium build.'

'Age? Come on, Angell, you know how this works you tell me everything you know.'

'I can't tell you what his age was but I can tell you he was pretty damn fast runner! Maybe you're looking for someone on a track team,' this time Angell made her sarcasm intentional. She wanted him to hear it.

'I don't like how you're speaking to me, Detective.'

'I don't like the questions you are asking me, Captain.'

'Angell,' he said trying to act serious but wasn't achieving it well. This felt like a reenactment of her high school years when she used to get sent to the headmasters office for nothing at all except for the fact that she was the only girl who had the courage to stand up against teachers.

'Sorry,' she said back. In her heart she was telling herself how much she didn't believe that.

'Carry on,' he said.

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Angell walked out of the interrogation room and leaned with her head against the wall. Repetitively knocking it against the wall softly she cursed the last three quarters of an hour she spent in that room.

'Angell?' Flack said from his spot on the hard, wooden benches. Angell slid her self across the wall so she was facing him. Lethargically, she lifted herself from the wall and took three steps before landing in the chair next to Flack.

'What happened in there?' he lifted his arm and placed it around her shoulders allowing her head to rest neatly against his.

'He made me say my statement all over again. This time with every little single bit of detail. I mean wasn't that what I saw doing for the past few hours to other detectives and CSIs,' Angell gave out a huge sigh and shut her eyes for a moment. 'I can't take this Don. I'm the detective I am meant to be the one doing all that to the witness.'

'Sometimes I guess we all have to look at the world from the other side of the tape,' he, too, gave a sigh and stared into dark corners of the waiting room.

Angell thought back to the interview. The Captain had been hard on her; making her answer question he already knew the answers to, forcing her to cough up every little bit of detail. She didn't mind persistent detectives but there was something about his way of being persistent that really made her struggle to keep her hand down and away from punching him in the face.

'God I hate him,' she said after moments of silence.

'Why?'

'He's an asshole?' her statement was more of a question. She knew why she hated him she just couldn't find the right words to express it.

'Oh, come on. He's not that bad.'

'Yes he is Don. He's horrible.'

'Why do you have a grudge against him anyway? Why don't you tell me?'

_Because I don't want to. Not yet, Don. Not yet._

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**A/N: **Strangely enough I don't really like this chapter… I don't know why there is something about it… Maybe the long windedness or the over use of dialogue… Or maybe the fact that it doesn't reveal much about the characters. Or that my writing, to me, is just really bad. Also you know, I don't really like the name I have given to this story. I mean it worked while it was still a one shot but now I've developed a story line around it I don't really think it works well. So you know, if ANYONE out there can think of a great name for my story - do tell me! Thanks!


	5. Chapter 5: In the Middle of the Night

**In the middle of the night**

**Summery: **_Can't think of any good one right now. _

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **Dun, dun, dun, dah… Okay bad fanfare but here's the next part. Badly, quickly written and unbetaed by myself so it might seem a little sketchy… Sorry course work is piling up. So do excuse the bad writing.

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Flack fumbled with his keys in the dim, darkness of the hallway. It was getting late now; the sun had set and the wind and the rain was picking up outside. From the hall they could hear the high pitch howling as the wind flapped the shutters open and close in the vacant apartment upstairs. How anyone could sleep with that irritable noise Angell could not understand.

The inside of the apartment was a relieve though, the warmth of the radiator heated up the room and you could almost forget the sound of the wind below the low hum of the radio.

'You keep that on all day?' Angell asked dropping her bag by the kitchen table and stripping herself of her jacket.

'Only on low. Keeps me company when there is no one else around,' Flack walked up to the high tech stereo system and turned the volume notch to zero.

Angell stood where she was, right by the entrance of his apartment, surveying his neatness as he'd done her messiness. It was pretty much a surprise to her actually, that one man, living alone, could be so neat. She knew that, even, she was never this tidy in all her life. Angell walked slowly down the hall looking left to right. She pasted the neat kitchen, with only a single mug left in its sink and the dining table with its pepper and salt pots neatly arranged in the center. Next, on her left was a door, presumably the spare room she'd be staying in since Flack entered the double at the top of the hall. Walking a little further, she past the divider separating the dinning area and the lounge. Along there were photo frames ranging from little Dons on tricycles to police academy graduate Dons and their degrees. She smiled playful at one in particular. A small dark haired, bright blue eyed boy was sat on top of a white fence being held up by a taller dark haired blue eyed man. Next to him was his tall, attractive redhead wife and their little brunette daughter. Angell picked up the frame slowly. Unlike the rest of the house, this seemed to be the only item covered in dust. Wiping it slowly with the tip of her finger the smiles of the Flack family illuminated under her fingers tips.

She smiled mainly at the unity of his family and how close they looked in the photo. Her family wasn't all that brilliant. Yes, she had 4 older brothers to look after her but they hardly ever did. The oldest was 8 years her senior and hardly ever talked to her, the next was 6 years. She never saw much of them in her childhood since they spent most of their time doing more 'adult' things, or teenaged things as it was called back then, and were never interested in babysitting for their youngest sibling. Her 3rd brother was 4 years her senior and the closet to her and the last was 2 years. The younger two often stayed with her and they played together a lot but as time went by, they graduated first and she was left behind. She spent most of her childhood believing there was too many of them to be close. Had she had one older brother then maybe, they might have hung out more but with 4 older brothers she hardly knew the oldest even now.

'You okay?' Flack voice pulled Angell back from her nostalgia and she fumbled to put the frame back where she found it.

'Yeah, yeah. Fine,' she stepped away from the display stand and walked up into the living room.

'Why not you get sorted out and I'll order pizza?' Flack shone a pizza delivery pamphlet in front of her and headed for the telephone. As she turned to walked into her bedroom she could heard Flack ordering –

'What ever you do – no pineapples!' she shouted shutting the door of her room behind her.

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'You should come over one day,' Flack smiled at Angell. They sat together on the settee licking the last crumbs of pizza off the bottom of the box, 'I think you and Sam would get along really well together.'

Angell raised an eyebrow at him, 'Don't think I'm inviting you over to my place for Sunday dinner. My brother would probably eat you alive.' They both threw their heads back laughing. Though Flack, suspected that all was alright between her and her brothers he didn't know the half of it but pretending that everything was fine and that she did in fact that 4 over protective brothers made scaring guys away much more fun.

Angell took another swing from her beer bottle and Flack watched her guzzle it down. He knew she admired the relationship he had between him and his sister but what she didn't know was Sam's little secret. Sam was fun, yeah when they were kids, but now, she was getting out of hand. Flack didn't want to expose Angell to someone like her, not while Sam was still like this.

'Come on, I think you've had enough,' Flack lend forward and grabbed the bottle of Angell. After watching his sister get drunk, he was always careful about how much any other female friend of his drank.

'Hey, I wasn't finished,' Angell tried reached forward and tried to grab the bottle back off of him.

'No, no. It's late,' his eyes glanced at the clock. He didn't actually know what time it was but he suspected it to be later than he thought. He was mistaken when his eyes found the hour hand only just hovering above 10.

Placing the half empty beer bottle of the glass coffee table he stood up and looked back down at Angell. He could see her eyes were dropping. In between her dazes he watched her – the slowly rising and falling of her chest, the lose curls that hung from her bun, the flicking of her eyelashes every few moments. She looked so serene and peaceful falling asleep on the couch. It almost seemed impossible that someone, anyone out there, would want to hurt her. He tried not to think about, not now at least since tomorrow he would be out there, looking for the person who did this.

Carefully nudging her awake he placed a hand firmly on her shoulders, 'Jess?' he said quietly in her ear. 'Jessica?' he teased her using her full name.

'What?' she argued back hating him for awaking her in the middle of sleep.

'If you're going to fall asleep do it on your own bed,' carefully yet quickly he placed one arm under hers and hoisted her up off the settee. Helping her stumble her way across the living room he opened the door to the spare room and settled her down nicely on the fluff of the duvet cover. She easily slid her way under the covers and bundled herself up. Flack stood again, watching by the door, as she peacefully covered herself in the thickness of the duvet. Walking out slowly he closed the doors of her room and looked back at his living room.

_Not now, _he told himself and walked directly into his bedroom where he took, tucked himself under the thick, featheriness of his blanket and was quickly enveloped by sleep.

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Everything was peaceful and colourful and full of vibrancy. There was a bright glow from what seemed to be the sun hovering high in the midday's sky. She could feel the prickliness of the grass underneath her but as she effortlessly brushed her fingers along the top she felt the smooth, soft petals of a random daisy here and there.

Everything around her seemed wonderful. There wasn't a care in the world. There were not evil men trying to dominate, there wasn't guns or planes that flew high and dropped bombs over civilians.

This was the dawn of time, when everything was perfect.

She could feel herself laying back, the moist grass beneath her, the sun warm rays above her. She had her eyes closed but she could still hear the soft twittering of songbirds near by. She felt peaceful, inside. All her stress of work were forgotten and there was no a single memory of the tragedy of the morning. All she could think of right then, all she could picture was his face. His bright face and piercing blue eyes and soft smooth skin were the only features she could make out. The glowing light behind him stopped her from distinguishing any key features but she knew, she knew inside that that was him.

She could feel her self reaching out a hand and touching lightly against his soft skin as he leaned closer and closer into her. She knew what he was going to do. She knew inside this was how it was meant to be.

As he got close enough, she could feel his warm breath touching her skin. The distance between them was getting smaller and smaller. And just as she imagined, she felt it; his warm lips touching against hers. Soft at first, nothing too daring until she could feel him push in harder.

Pressing his lips against her he wouldn't let go. She wanted to open her eyes and see what was happening but she couldn't. Suddenly what seemed like everything she dreamt of was back firing. His hands became rough, pinning her to the ground, stopping her from any movement. The sudden desperation for air was impossible as she could feel her breathing stop. She wanted to cry out for help but she knew no one was going to help her.

As he pinned her down harder, stopped her from breath and the weight of everything press down against her chest she could feel her last breath escape her. Slowly, she swallowed the last bit of air and how she wanted this to be her special moment, it turned into her dying moment.

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**A/N: **Sorry that was a bit of an abrupt ending. I didn't want to carry on and make it too long and I didn't want to 'waffle' (as my English teacher says) as much


	6. Chapter 6: Wishing and Receiving

**Wishing and ****Receiving**

**Summery: **After the dream and the morning after.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **Can I just say, thank you, thank you, thank you SO much to anyone who has READ, REVIWED, or basically ENJOYED my piece so far. Oh and a special thanks to IrishGirl9 who has reviewed on all my chapters =D lots of love goes out to you right now!

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Angell felt her body being pulled back into reality at a 100 miles per hour. She took a sudden deep breath of air and felt herself jolt up in the bed. Panting hard she brought up her hand and placed it against her chest. Her breathing was fine but her heart beat was racing. Whatever she was dreaming of it certainly scared the hell out of her.

Sitting up in bed and ran her fingers along her temples. Trying to make the slightest bit of sense about what happened but she just kept coming back to what her dream was about. She couldn't remember it very well, just a blue and green and lots of light. The more she thought about it the more her dream kept slipping away. Realizing it was just a bad dream she started to try and forget it.

Getting up from her bed she walked across the room to the door. Expecting to find Flack still watching TV, she was confronted by the empty, cold, darkness of the living room. Looking around carefully, she became weary; remember that this wasn't her apartment she had no idea where anything was. She walked in the direction she remembered the kitchen being located in and dragged her fingertips along the hall wall trying to find a switch.

Once entering the kitchen she turned the cooking hood's light on and fumbled at the sink to try and find a cup. It was late and as much as she needed sleep she also was in desperate need of something like coffee. She knew it was going to keep her up but she also knew she wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep.

As she waited for the kettle to boil she leaned against the counter with her elbows propped up against it. She couldn't help thinking but there was something about the dream that kept bugging her. She tried to drag her thoughts away from it and fell into the notion of being here. This was definitely the first time she had visited Flack's apartment and she found it cozier than normal. She usually hated staying anywhere but her own home but it hadn't even occurred to her hen she entered that this was somewhere unfamiliar. Something about the arrangement of his apartment, or the smell or the comfortableness made her feel relaxed, peacefully and more or less at home.

'Jess?' she hadn't noticed Flack standing at the door of kitchen until he called her name.

'Hi, yeah. Sorry, got a little puckish, thought I'd make my self a coffee. Want one?' she held up the clean, empty mug next to her and Flack accepted it.

'It's a bit late to be drinking coffee isn't it?' he walked over to the tall pantry doors and started rummaging inside for something Angell couldn't see.

Standing from behind she watched him take out and put back different tins and jars of cookery items. She had her arms across her hugging herself tightly, it was a cool night, the rain had died down but it was still slightly foggy and misty outside. She wore only a linen shirt and became envious of Flack's grey pullover.

'Here,' Flack finally stood up straight holding a purple jar. 'Normally I save this for a little Christmas spirit but I guess now's a good enough time to have it,' he cracked open the lid and spooned out dark, chocolate powder into their cups. 'This won't keep you awake.' Flack gave Angell a smile that glowed brightly under the dim light of the kitchen. Angell started to feel shy, she felt like she was intruding on his life, especially now, when he should be sleeping he's up, making cups of hot chocolate for her.

Passing her a cup, she took it from him graciously. Their fingers brushed against each others and similarly to earlier that day their eyes suddenly shot together in contact. Angell took her cup and dropped her vision low as she followed Flack into the living room.

'So, what made you wake up?' Angell sipped her drink cautiously for the heat even though her eyes were on him. She looked at him carefully as she drank down his drink. He looked unkempt but still rather gorgeous with his hair messy and bristles in need of a shave.

'Bad dream,' Angell's answer was short and she never held her eye contact long. When she wasn't sipping at her drink she was brushing her fringe out of her face. Flack could see her eagerness to pretend she was preoccupied – her sparkling, hazel eyes flickered at ground level and she constantly chewed on her bottom lip. Flack wondered if all of this was a distraction from him or if she just had her mind on other things.

'You wanna tell me about it?' the silence of the room echoed across each wall and started to annoy him greatly, so maybe this was just to make conversation to kill that quietness or if it was to understand her more.

'It was nothing,' she was bad at shrugging things off. It seemed like she was trying to conceal something bad, something she didn't want to express to the other person.

'Can't have been nothing if it was a bad dream.'

'Maybe, it was actually a good dream then.'

'Can it be both?' he raised an eye brow at her.

'Yeah, I think it could be.'

'Like how?'

'Well, if you dream about death – it's a bad dream. But if the last person you see, before you die, is the person you love – well then that's a good dream right?'

Flack nodded agreeing with her statement, 'Except for the part when actually end up dead.'

'You're too literal, Don. If you were about to die but before you did you saw your girlfriend, at least you would die with a happy thought right?'

'Yeah, I guess,' Flack found her explanation a bit sketchy but he got it, only before the prying thought that had stopped him from sleeping that whole evening came back to him. If Angell had died that morning, the last time he would have seen her was the evening before just as she was leaving the precinct. It was a happy memory to go by, remembering her smile, the way her hair bobbed on her shoulders and how her coat chased after her. But he didn't think he could live, knowing he didn't say goodbye.

'If you were going to die tomorrow, who would you spend your remaining hours with?' Angell raised an eyebrow at Flack.

'What sort of a question is that?'

'I dunno, think about it. Who?' Flack watched as Angell's hair dropped back into her line of vision. He was hoping not for the normal answer of, my parents or my brothers but something a little more spontaneous.

'You maybe?' it actually caught him by surprise. He was hoping for that answer but hoping and actually receiving was to different things. She looked calm and collected but he was slightly bedazzled.

'Really?' he asked back but she just nodded.

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Even with his eyes closed he knew it was morning. He could feel the warm rays of sunlight scattered across his room from the open set of binds. It felt better than it had the night before, the cold, dampness made it uncomfortable but right then, it was prefect.

He stirred awake and watched the whiteness of his ceiling still caught in a dream. He couldn't make out exactly what it was about but he remembered seeing her face. Her glowing hazel eyes were what he pictured the clearest but then he realized, it might have been because he remember, vaguely, she was the last thing he saw before failing asleep.

He couldn't remember exactly how he'd gotten into bed last night but he remembered she was there. He rolled onto his side to find crumpled up sheets and a soft imprint of her on covers next to him. She was there that night. He rested his hand on the position she sleep in but the sheets were cold from, what seemed to be, her long absence.

Lifting himself, slowly, up from the bed he looked around. His room was neat, nothing out of place – maybe a little too neat and there even was a different smell – like something sweet and sugar and it reminded him of the time when he was a child and he'd have to past the local bakery to get home from school everyday. The smell of fresh rolls used to tingle his sense make him stop every so often wishing he had that little extra bit of pocket money to buy a sugar donut that used to sit on the counter display by the window.

Walking out his bedroom door he looking around the living room where there was no one there. But a little further down the hall there was the familiar hum of the radio playing and the soft whistling of Angell.

'You know my mother used to say it was bad for a girl to whistle,' Flack leaned against the hard marble counter of the kitchen.

'Well, good morning to you too,' Angell was smiling, she was happy. Her joyful, cheeriness was back after a goods night sleep.

Flack sniffed the air, inhaling all the sweet wondrous smells his kitchen never used to make, 'What are you cooking?'

Picking up a plate beside the cooker, Angell handed it to him. The plate was full, stacked up high with lightly golden brown pancakes.

'Just thought I would say 'thank you' for letting me stay here. I hope you like it,' she was grinning from ear to ear. Her hazel eyes were sparkling.

'I think I should be saying thank you. These are great I haven't had them in so long.'

'Well, I was surprised you had the ingredients actually. I never took you as a pancake maker.'

'My mother. When ever she comes down she'll always surprise me with them.'

'Hmm, great minds think alike,' she smiled. Flack was sat down at his dinning table pouring dollops of honey on several pieces. 'I'm going to get ready for work, so enjoy.'

Flack, spooned a large amount before watching Angell walk across his landing and into the bathroom. It was a random thought, and he cursed himself for thinking it but, he couldn't help admiring the slow swaying of her hips as she walked off.

_What really happened last night?_ he asked himself.

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Angell stood still under the warm water of his shower, the night was pretty vague. She remembered just talking to Don and how nice it felt just being friends. Then she remembered beer bottles and lots of laughing but after that, everything seemed to be missing until she woke up next to him. She knew nothing had happened because she awoke fully dressed but even so, to take her mind off it she decided on an old past time - cooking. Actually, her past time used to be baking, until she started living alone and she realized she couldn't spend the rest of her life living off chocolate chipped cookies and banana muffins.

She hated the feeling when she stepped out of the shower, the floor was cold and towel and the towel didn't stop her from shivering. It had been a cold night but the morning seemed to grant better weather, or at least she hoped. She slipped her self into the light pink bathroom she'd brought from home and stepped out of the bathroom. She started fiddling with her clothes getting them all sorted out until she slipped off the bathrobe to start dressing.

There came a soft creak of floorboards and the door behind her opened.

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**A/N: **Well, hope you liked that one. I bought a CSI NY magazine the other day and there was a WHOLE 4 page spread about Eddie Cahill as Don Flack and two LOVELY full pages of him. (I've been debating about whether or not I should cut it out and stick it up on my wall or preserve the magazine??) Believe it or not there was an interview with Emmanuelle Vaugier except it was ONE page at the VERY end. How very sad they should do a similar double to 4 page spread on here and Jessica Angell… Lol they called her Jennifer in that issue… But it was end of season 4 issue… hmmm, actually even still shouldn't they have it to Jessica???


	7. Chapter 7: The Suspicion

**The Touch, The Suspicion, The Hatred**

**Summery:**** - **

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **This chapter should contain missing info on The Captain – enjoy!

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He didn't know she still wasn't ready and he cursed himself for not knocking but he was already inside.

'Oh, it's just you. Hold on one moment,' Angell watched him enter through the reflection on the mirror. She didn't seem shocked nor did she seem bothered by his presence but he however, felt awkward, misplaced, he hung his head low but couldn't bring his self to turn around and leave this 'half dressed' Angell alone.

'Could you give me a hand?' this time he was shocked by her request. Her hands and arms were stretched out behind her gripping the two ends of her bra strap. 'I know, I was such a fool to decide to wear this one if I can't even get it on.'

She stood still, waiting for Flack to walk over. He looked at her twice, wondering, questioning both her and his own motives if he was walk over there now. But taking none of his brain signals into consideration he strode his was over. He stood behind her leaving a small, two inch at most, gap between them. Taking each end of the bar strap together he clip them on. Most men he thought, would have had only the experience of getting a bra 'off' a woman, Flack still found it slightly disturbing that he was able to put one on as easily.

But when he finished, he didn't step back; instead his hands trailed their way down her back. She could feel goose bumps starting to appear but he didn't seem to care. Her skin was soft, smooth and perfect under his finger tips. Not a starch or a mark to be found. Until he fingers lightly brushed the small of her back. He let his fingers linger there for a while as he looked up at her.

'What is it?' she asked him, softly, carefully, turning her head to peer around her shoulder.

'I didn't know you had this,' she was curious at first about what he was talking about, until his fingers began slowly tracing out a butterfly on the left side of the back of her hip.

'Well, you've never seen me topless now have you?' she said it cheekily, seductively, in a way that almost asked him to do something daring.

'That's true,' his lips were now hovering over her shoulder. Her eyes locked with his in their reflection. She stood absolutely still, fists clenched, trying to not flinch at his every touch as he kept tracing the outline with his finger tips. She tried to control her breathing, stopping herself from doing anything irrational but as his fingers slipped and touched the top of her waist band she couldn't help but let out a gasp of air.

'I'm sorry,' Flack retracted his hands and left them by his side. His face was flustered, embarrassed by what he had just done but he still didn't move.

'No, no. It's alright, Don. Don't worry,' her words were quick and about as 'flustered' as his were. They didn't move for a moment after that. He looked down, just watching the small, blue butterfly rise and fall with the rest of her body as she breathed slowly.

Finally, unable to take anymore of the awkward, silence and stillness Angell reached out to the counter next to her and grabbed her shirt. Sliding it over her head Flack watched as he took his last glimpse of the tattoo before it was gone.

She turned around and rested her back against the counter facing him. Their faces were only separated by the small gap of hot air building up between them. Angell tried but failed to not look deep into his eyes as she slipped away, 'You'd better get ready.'

That was all she said as she escaped the clammy, unbearably desirable small gap between them. They wouldn't admit it but they both knew at that moment, how impossible it would be to pull them selves away from each other. Knowing it would take more will power that they both had they made a mental note, telling themselves they would try and never get into that sort of a position again.

--------

Danny was sat at Flack's desk with his feet up. _He's late, _he thought to himself_. _He'd been waiting for the last half hour for Flack since he needed the case file from the previous day and it was, apparently, somewhere hidden under the mass of papers Flack called 'organized work'. Danny used his pen to lift up a book at the side of the desk, peering under neither it, maybe if he looked hard enough he might be able to find it himself.

'Not on your life Donald!' There came chatter from across the quiet precinct as Angell and Flack entered together.

'Oh, come on, Jessica,' Flack was following Angell who was two extra paces in front of him to keep out of reach. Angell was smiling and laughing as she past Danny not even glancing at him as she sat at her desk opposite Flack's. Danny tilted his head to one side wondering – they had been relatively friendly the past few weeks and now arriving together at work after Angell was asked to stay at a relatives or a friends - everyone in the precinct must have been wondering the same thing.

'Oh, hi Danny,' Angell said looking up and realizing he was there

'You're both late,' he pointed out lifting him self from Flack's seat.

'Traffic,' Flack pointed out as he draped his jacket over the back of his chair. 'Yes, how can I help you, Messer?'

'Besides, it's Thursday – where's the case file?'

Flack thought hard for a moment before plunging into his out tray. Pulling the top file off he opened it and handed it to Danny, 'You didn't try and look?'

Danny simply blinked at Flack, amazed by his ability to dish out random case files from paperwork hell. But it wasn't the case file that bothered him at the moment. It was Thursday and every Thursday since they'd worked together they'd made it so that they'd both go out for a few bees, maybe play a bit of pool, all to catch up and relax, 'So?'

Flack looked at Angell; she tried to look preoccupied by writing something down. Flack was less aware of the funniness of their conversation and more so about leaving Angell alone for a few hours that night whiles he went out with Danny. He felt somewhat guilt but the mere thought of what he was about to do but for the sake of, what might be a blooming relationship, he had to agree.

'Yeah, course I'm free,' he nodded at Danny. Adjusting his glasses with the tip of his finger Danny began to walk off. He noticed as he turned the corner Angell gave Flack a suspicious look - there was something going on between them, he could see it in the way Angell leaned across her desk, the way she stared into Don's eyes, the way Don simply paid all attention to her, and he was determined to find out if it was true.

--------

The Captain was watching, slyly from his office window. He held the blinds open ajar with his fingers, watching them. He saw them exit the car together and walk up to the precinct bickering. He hated when she did that, flinger herself on men, flirting, acting all carless. This was a police station for God's sake. But then again, it wasn't just that, it was the way her hair fell into her face, the way her eyes sparkles when she laughed, the way she stood when angry. Features, traits, qualities, everything about her drew attention and not just by Detective Flack by every man who walked through here.

He stepped away from the dim light of the window and to the door, leading into the precinct.

'Angell,' he called. It was that little bit of shock and horror on her face that made him tingle inside. She was scared of him that was for sure… that was how he liked it.

Angell hadn't expected it; well she should have expected it if she was on her guard but around Flack, she was anything but on her guard.

She hated the feeling of leaving the insecurity of Flack's presence but she knew he couldn't follow her everywhere so she slowly and reluctantly got up from her chair and walked through the maze of tables and officers into the Captain's office.

She couldn't help but think he was dressed for a funeral; from black shoes to a grey tie, even his office gave off a suspicious, haunted feeling. Angell sat silently in the chair opposite his desk and tried to act as natural as possible when truth was all she felt was uncomfortable. His strides were determined and purposeful. He was standing next to her first, talking low and softly, as if to make sure no one else could hear. His cologne was pungent to her but she forced herself not to flinch, his hair was slicked back, all of it so none dangled within his line of vision, he was tall as well, taller than Flack definitely and larger too.

He finally moved to sit in front of Angell and he looked directly into her hazel ones piercing them with his dark, bottomless ones. His looks were charming, not dazzling, more charismatic – but nothing about his next words made Angell feel good about him.

--------

Flack play with the tip of the pen with his tongue as he rested between his teeth using both hands to go through paper work. Setting down the pile in his left hand he picked up his cell and pressed speed dial. Holding it to his ear he continued flicking through some work. Spiting the pen out he started answering the person on the other end. His words were short and quick and he soon put down his cell to stand collected all his papers for filing. As Flack stood he looked back to the Captains office. Angell was still in there, granted she hadn't been in there for long but he knew how much she disliked him – being in there more than 5 minutes with him was probably a good enough version of hell for her.

But finally, as Flack was about to leave for the CSIs the Captains doors came flinging open. Crashing into the wall Angell strode out clutching her fists.

'There is no need to get upset about this Detective,' the Captain called after her as she walked away. He had a cheeky grin on his face, a satisfying grin. Flack couldn't help but wonder what went on in there and waited, until Angell came and sat down in her chair before asking her.

She looked distraught, upset, clearly emotional. Flack set down his things, crouched down next to her and rubbed his palms up and down the side of her arms in attempt to comfort her.

'What happened?' his words were soft and caring. His eyes spoke for the fact that he was also worried, scared about what Angell might have been through while inside his office.

'Can he do this to me Don? Can he?' Angell sat back in her chair; she let out a huge sigh of distress - clearly today wasn't going to be a good day for her again.

'Can he do what, Jess?' he waited for her reply, fearing the worst out of everything.

--------

**A/N: **Little something I put together at the last moment. Hope it's enjoyable and well, okay for you all.


	8. Chapter 8: Out Tonight

**Out Tonight**

**Summery: - **

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **This is a very dialogue-y chapter. Bear with me I've been swamped in course work. [Damn Sylvia Plath poems!]

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'He's moved me to another case!'

Flack flopped back on the cold precinct floor – that was what the Captain told her. He was almost shocked it wasn't something worse but at the same time he was glad it was nothing like suspension or something along those lines.

'Jess, that's fine. You got me worried for a moment.'

'But Don, I want to do this case – I need to do this case. I kept thinking about how I was going to be the one who would arrest this bastard for everything he's done to me.'

'Don't worry. I'll keep you updated on everything.'

Angell stopped and just looked at Flack blankly, taken back, not just by his comment but by her envy, 'Oh, so you're doing the case.'

Flack felt slightly hurt by her words but he could see she was determined – her job was probably getting the better of her at the moment. Time was ticking and he needed to get moving so he stood up and looked down at Angell trying to act professional and not emotional towards her, 'I'm sorry okay. I'd give you this case if I could but it's the Captain's choice not mine. I'll see you later.'

'No, Don. I didn't mean it that way,' she got up and grabbed his arm pulling him back. Their glance suddenly locked together as she looked into his blue eyes. He looked hurt and bruised by what she said but he brushed it off easily. 'Okay, maybe I am glad you're doing my case and not someone else – I just… I just wish I was doing it that's all.' She attempted a heart warming smile trying to convince Flack that, even though she was hurting inside that she wasn't doing the case, she was still grateful he was. He personally wasn't taking it, he knew better about her, she was probably cursing him, hating him, but she'd never show it. She'd never express hatred towards him.

Flack pulled her arm lightly and brought her into an embrace holding her tightly in a hug, smelling her peach shampoo and poison perfume he rested his chin on the top of her head, 'Everything going to be fine, we'll find out who did this together.'

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'No,' Lindsay looked shocked at Danny. 'Please tell me you're joking.'

Danny simply smiled at her back, trying hard not to laugh at her reaction, 'I swear Lindsay. They came in; bantering like an old couple would after years of practise.'

'Talk about being a natural,' Lindsay comment trying to hide her grin.

They were both leaning against the warm, light table making it look as if they were discussing the evidence scattering out in front of them but between their whispers and sudden bursts of laughter they began getting looks from other lab techs.

'But, Flack and Angell?' Lindsay began nervously chewing on her nails trying to accept everything that Danny was telling her, 'I mean I knew they were friends and all but I thought he was seeing someone?'

'Obviously not. You weren't there yesterday while we were at Angell's apartment; his eyes were all over her. I mean I thought it was just friendly concern but hell, she followed him out of there bag and all.' Lindsay shook her head in disbelief. She'd known Angell for a while and along with Stella the three had grown close – going out for drinks, giving each other rides, generally going to each other for help – Lindsay thought she knew Angell well enough to know if she was dating someone, but then again, she didn't actually know if Angell and Flack were even dating. Danny had only mentioned them walking in together to work together, talking and laughing, and them leaving together the night before. Both of them had thought the latter was because he was sending her to a hotel but it seemed they were wrong,

'You never know Danny, she might have stayed at someone else house and he'd just picked her up this morning.'

'Oh, come on Lindsay. You know Don better than that! He'd offer a room to us if we were in Angell situation. He's like that.' Lindsay thought for a moment. Danny was right, Flack was generous, just like his sister he remembered, and would have done anything to make sure everyone was alright if anything had happened.

'Oh my god, red alert,' Lindsay suddenly stood up straight and adjusted her lab coat pointing to the elevators.

'What? What?' Danny stood in a mass of panic thinking Mac had surprisingly come in to check on their progress but instead, when he turned, he was confronted by the sight of Flack and Angell walking up the lab hall way together. 'Hey, what did I tell you?'Danny smiled at Lindsay before walking past her, pecking a goodbye kiss on her check and leaving her as he continued off to his own evidence.

Lindsay watched as Flack and Angell stood in the hallway for a moment talking. For the sake of hearing what their conversation was about, she walked up to the window closest to them and pretended to be fiddling with the equipment in front of her.

'You going to be alright?' Flack said reaching out and touching Angell on the shoulder.

'Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine. Sorry about just now though,' she looked upset.

'Nah, don't worry. I would feel the same in you're situation,' Flack dropped his hand from her shoulder and gave her a small nod before walking off. Lindsay hadn't noticed but her head and eyes began to follow Flack around the corridor and into the evidence room on the other side of the floor where Danny was. Angell, in the mean time, had entered Lindsay's room raising an eyebrow in her direction.

'Everything okay?' she said snapping Lindsay out of a dream.

'Hmm? Oh yeah, yeah, fine,' she tried to act clam. She held her ground strong, attempting to prevent herself from spontaneously burst out with 'What on earth's going on between you and Don?!' - 'How can I help you?'

'We've got a case up in Mid Town. Better grab your stuff,' she tossed a smile at Lindsay before walking out of the evidence room leaving her with devious thoughts on how she'd go about this delicate subject.

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'I'd like to tell you we have something Don but this whole case is coming up in blanks,' Stella stood away from her microscope and gave an apprehensive look at him.

'Nothing at all. No name? Witness? Half a finger print or a bit of hair?' Stella sadly shook her head before walking over to a computer on the other side of the room.

'We did collect this from the alley way but I don't think it means anything,' she said just to give Flack a little bit of reassurance. On the screen was a scanned in corner of a piece of paper. It seemed more like a photo from its composition but there wasn't much off of it.

'Boom,' Danny cried from the other end of therooml. 'We have a hit!' Danny rolled his chair over to Stella and placed on the table a sheet of paper with a photo and address. 'Jessica Miller, that's your victim. Aged 28, works as a consultant at a dietary company on in Brooklyn, lives two floors above Angell.'

'How'd you find her?' Flack asked looking at the photograph of Jessica Miller a little closer. He hated to admit but it was true, he dark brown eyes, high cheek bones, red lips – they all looked similar to Angell's features. In the photograph her hair was red but it was still curly and wave in the same places.

'Her employers filed a missing person's case on her when she didn't turn up for work two days in a row.'

'Wish someone had told them she was in the morgue,' Stella mentioned.

'This still doesn't give us any link to Angell's B and E,' Flack ran his fingers through his hair frustratingly. He knew he should treat each case with the same amount of interest as the rest but Angell case seemed to catch his attention more. He didn't want to sound selfish but it just seemed as if he didn't care much for the dead girl in the Laundromat as opposed to finding who did this to Angell.

'Let's build on a theory here that the two cases are possibly connected. Say someone was out to get Angell due to a past case or something along those lines – well, as long as the killer knew Angell's first name was Jessica he could have barged into the Laundromat, called out Angell's name to which our victim would have replied. Now if he was holding a gun to her it makes sense why Angell heard a scream first. Our vic screaming would have made the shooter freak out then shoot her possibly by accident,' Stella gently swung her chair from side to side pondering on what she'd just said.

'Yeah, but then that doesn't give us any connection to her burglary,' Danny said as Stella nodded in agreement.

'How about, when he ran out into the street he went around the block and back into the apartment knowing Angell was going to be still in the Laundromat. So he went to her apartment, which was conveniently unlocked and stole what he needed,' Flack tossed around the idea before getting reassuring nods from his colleagues.

'I'm going to work on your theory and get Adam to go back over the tapes from the lift lobby and entrance,' Stella jumped and up walked out of the lab and into the AV room where Adam was sat analysing another piece of evidence leaving Danny and Flack alone.

Embraced in a moments silence they stared at each other.

'So?' Danny suddenly mumbled. He decided to take this opportunity of silence to ask Flack about him and Angell – something which has been itching to come out for ages now.

'Yeah,' Flack wasn't focused though; he had brought out his cell and was scanning through messages.

'What's up with you and Angell?' Danny couldn't help him self, curiosity was digging deep into his gut and the one way to release it was by letting it all out.

'Sorry?' Flack was being polite. He had heard what Danny said – he didn't want to answer it though. He'd made it so far keeping all his coffee evenings with Angell a secret he couldn't see why he could still do it while she was staying over. He did know that sooner or later the whole department would catch on but if he was going to tell anyone he was going to tell them all at the same time…. And with Angell by his side.

'Oh come on. You, Jess – leaving together, arriving together – don't tell me you thought I wouldn't notice.'

'No, Danny this is you we are talking about. You wouldn't miss a thing,' Flack said slightly sarcastically as he put his cell back into his pocket casually trying to not make it seem as he had nothing to say.

'Don, we're friends. Tell me.'

Flack gave a heavy sigh, 'Tonight.' And walked out of the lab leaving Danny alone.

--------

'Come on!' Lindsay was trailing after Angell at their crime scene. It was in the middle of a local park and the victim was spread across the grass. 'Tell me.' She was getting agitated at Angell. She'd popped the question the car on the way there and since that moment Angell's kept her lips firmly shut. Though out of the corner of her eye Lindsay could swear, every time she mentioned Flack's name a smile was leak out.

'I have nothing to tell you Lindsay,' Angell wasn't running away from telling Lindsay anything - she was just trying her best to keep her back to Lindsay while the blushing in her cheeks subsided. She couldn't help it though; it was most probably the thought that Lindsay suspected something. Angell had confided in Stella about her thoughts for Flack but never in Lindsay. It wasn't that she didn't trust it, she did, it was mainly because of her close connection with Danny and Danny wasn't someone she wasn't to share this information with for her own personal reasons.

'Oh, stop living in denial, Jess!' Lindsay stopped and placed her hands in a fist and onto her waist. 'I'll find out soon enough.' She began tapping her foot, waiting for Angell to turn around and she knew she would soon.

Angell tried to hold her breath counting slowly from 1 to 10, calming her nerves. She didn't want to tell Lindsay, not because she didn't like her but because she didn't think she was ready. Her and Flack hadn't even talked about anything yet. They were still friends – friends who happened to be sharing the same apartment at the moment but they were still friends none the less.

'What are you doing this evening?' Angell finally spun around to a childishly cheerful Lindsay.

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**A/N: **Ahh, too much dialogue in that chapter and not enough inner emotion. I am getting SO sick of English at the moment – Coursework due tomorrow, poetry competition entries due Friday, two short story competition due… okay in March but still, I have to starting think about it now right. AH, and MOCKS in January… I think I'll just die now!


	9. Chapter 9: Memories of Nostalgia

**Memories of Nostalgia **

**Summery: **It's a night out for the CSIs and Detectives. Hints of SM and past reference to FS and DA [If you get what they stand for - if not read XP]

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **A rather LONG chapter on relationships and past relationships and little something extra. (Mainly an insight to characters I guess.)

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'So, can you make it?' Lindsay was on the phone to Stella and even though she was elbow deep in evidence, Stella felt she couldn't put down an offer of getting out of the lab.

'I don't know Lindsay. I've got work,' she couldn't help it – this was her work antics getting to her.

'Please Stella. There'll be good juicy gossip coming you're way – you won't want to miss out!' Lindsay just couldn't contain it – the mere idea of having Angell spill everything about her and Flack was just too exciting for her to contain.

'You know I don't participate in 'coffee room gossip', Lindsay?'

'This isn't coffee room gossip, Stell. You might actually be interested in what's to be said. '

Stella took a big sigh and looked once again at the piling paper work around her. It was getting late, the sun was below the horizon and she'd been doing a double shift – she needed a little bit of something to help her relax. Reluctantly accepting she decided to go with it. _How bad was going out for a little drink? s_he thought. Grabbing her bag she moved out of her cluttered office and down the dim hall of the CSI lab. There still had cases at this time of night but the number of staff went down. Some were on emergency call in case assistances was needed but they'd never come in under their own accord.

As Stella waited at the elevators she turned to face Mac's office. Expecting him to either be out on a case or at home after a godly horrible amount of shifts Stella was surprised to see him sat comfortably leaning back in his leather chair. She felt a pang of sympathy towards him though. He was always working more than he should be and it was these small moments where he got a moment to relax that made everything seem better.

Feeling guilty about not saying she was leaving Stella missed her elevator and walked into Mac's office, slowly pushing the glass door as he continued speaking though she couldn't hear who was at the other end.

'No, I'm not going,' Mac said to the person on the other end.

'Oh come on! It'll be you, me, Flack and Hawkes. How much more fun could you want?' Danny was speaking at the other end already sat in a bar with Flack since shift ended 20 minutes ago.

'It's the fun part I am worried about,' Mac gave a glance at Stella who was patiently waiting in the middle of his office. He wanted to conversation to end as soon as possible so he could speak to her but hated that Danny kept the conversation going.

'Oh, come on Mac, you ain't got something better to do have you?'

'You don't know that.'

'Fine, but you're missing out!' Danny finally hung up the phone and Mac gave a sigh of relief.

'Clingy girlfriend?' Stella said sarcastically, she knew better that Mac wasn't going out with anyone but it was still fun for a little tease.

Mac simply shook his head as he rested it back against his chair and shut his eyes for a moment. It had been a long 4 shifts but it felt good to get so much accomplished. Realising it must be late he checked the clock, 'Fancy getting something to eat?'

Stella tried to keep her grin under control but failed miserably, 'You asking me out on a date?'

'This wouldn't be the first time if I was Stella,' Mac said dryly. They had gone out for dinner together prior to that night but for some odd reason Mac had the urge to take Stella somewhere nice, somewhere fancy and up class, somewhere unexpected.

She was smiling at first, that made him feel good, except that her facial expressions changed dramatically after that, 'I'm sorry Mac. I have plans to go out with the girls. I'm really sorry.' She waited for a reply but when she got none she decided to retort back anyway, 'You should have called earlier, get in before everyone else asked – I am a pretty popular person, I'll have you know.'

It had worked. She had forced a small laugh out of Mac and making him look that little less depressed, 'Fine, can I reserve you for tomorrow night then?'

Stella looked at Mac slightly taken back. _Had he asked her out properly this time? _'Where will you be taking me?'

'Well, I've got 24 hours to think about it, I bet I can come up with somewhere good,' now Mac was playing along with their little game. They hadn't flirted much before but after several bad relationships they found they couldn't help but come together in a time of crisis. It was in those little moments of reassurance that they exchanged little words of affections with out actually saying anything.

'I might warn you though Detective, I am not easily surprised.' Stella continued the flirting spree, battering her eyelashes in his general direction.

'Well, see about that.' Mac couldn't help but grin – he knew Stella well enough to know that she would expect everything but he knew a special day was coming soon and this would be the last thing Stella or anyone else would imagine.

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Flack leaned against the bar, arms folded and head buried somewhere in between. He wasn't feeling nauseas or anything, he was only on his second bottle of beer, but he did start to feel he'd made lots of bad choices in his life. Like the time in high school when he thought it was funny to light a toilet on fire or crash the principle's car. Except this sort of regret was different, he wasn't going to get punished for what he did, except knowing Danny well enough he might never live it down either.

'You okay Don?' the bar man stood over Flack watching him he stand there.

Lifting his head up fast he felt blood begin to rush back up causing him to fluster and go red, 'What? Oh, yeah I'm fine.'

The bar man handed him three more bottles of beer before taking the change, 'You don't look right, Don? Too much alcohol?'

'No, No,' Flack was tired, that was most probably what caused his sudden burst of regret. 'I'm fine.' He nodded as he walked off.

Scanning the bar he noticed a few guys at the other end drinking and laughing loudly, in the corner was a couple lips entwined, hands roaming each other, and there at the other end of the pub its self was Danny and Hawkes tossing pool sticks at each other and they waited for the third and final companion to join them.

'Wake up Don, it's not yet 9,' Danny grabbed a bottle off Flack and tipped half down in one gulp.

'So, tell us Flack,' Hawkes paused for a moment lining up his cue, 'what is up with you and Angell?'

Flack knew it was coming. They were successful in dodging the subject for the past hour but now, with enough alcohol in their systems, it seemed a perfect time to get the truth out. Flack stripped himself of his jacket, loosened his tie and untucked his shirt.

'There's nothing between us,' it didn't feel right, tell them this but it was true, its not like they'd kissed or slept together either – well, not in the sexual way his two co-workers would have associated it with. Asides for the little incident that morning there had been no intimate contact between them. 'Honest, guys. There isn't anything to say.'

Danny and Hawkes wasn't going to let any of this down.

'Fine, if you won't tell us, we'll force it out of you,' Danny said bluntly, 'Is Jess sleeping in your apartment?'

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'Yes, fine. It's true. I am staying with Don. Is that so bad?' Angell took a swing of her own beer – a drink she come accustomed to having instead of anything fancier such as Lindsay's cocktail or Stella's wine. It was most likely due to her brothers who used to sneak six packs into their room and in need of finishing it before their mother found out they always saved a bottle for her.

'Tell me he looks good with nothing on,' Lindsay began to melt with the words as she gazed into the distant, no doubt imagining what she had just said.

'If it's any consolation, Lindsay, I've never seen him naked yet,' Angell teased her with her words. But it was true she hadn't.

'So, what is, really, up between you two?' this time it was Stella who was intrigued.

Angell couldn't help but shrug unknowingly, and it was true. She liked him but did he like her back? Maybe, of course after that morning what she desired most out of anything in the world was to be under his touch again but was that something he would conform to?

'Think, Jess!' Lindsay was become impatient.

Angell sighed heavily, 'We talked last night… I woke up in his bed the next morning-'

Stella couldn't help but burst out laughing before Angell could say anymore. Lindsay was simply looking at her shocked.

'You guys didn't…' Stella didn't need to finish her sentence for Angell to get her meaning.

'No, no. We didn't. No.'

'Tell me you wanted to or at least thought about it?' Lindsay was becoming slightly too obsessed with this.

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'Yeah, okay, fine. I've thought about it.'

Danny raised a hand to Hawkes who high fived him back, 'Our Donnie's growing up!'

'No guys, don't take it in that way,' Flack wished he hadn't said it now. It was typical for them to do this.

'Admit it, you want to have sex with her,' Hawkes was raising an eyebrow at Flack this time. They all knew the answer was yes but Flack wasn't giving up that easily.

'I like her but,' Flack stopped himself for the sake of not sounding like a pansy but he couldn't think of a better way to admit it, 'I want to know her, on a personal level. I don't want to jump into things or allow it to be something like casual sex every other day. I want to understand her.'

It was a statement Flack thought he'd never have to use in front of his friends but it was the only way to get the message across and it was whole heartily, honestly true. Flack knew there was something between them and it was a different sort of something as apposed to anything else he'd had with anyone. He wanted to know Angell inside out, her faults, her flaws, her perfection. Something about repeating that moment that morning but on the rest of her came to him mind.

'That's deep man,' Danny said looking at him.

'Exactly. I mean I don't know maybe this is just her and me but hey, you used to go out with her Danny? What's she like truly?'

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'That was ages ago, Jess.'

'You still went out with him, Stella. You must know how it feels to be with him like that.'

Stella couldn't help but think back, it was years ago, many years ago. Flack was new and she was daring - that sort of things thrilled her, now someone comforting, warm and familiar was all she was looking for.

'No, what we had was different Jess. You two have chemistry and fireworks go off when you're around each other. We had ripples in the water. It didn't go far before everything just died out,' Stella felt slightly guilty mentioning it as Angell looked down into her empty beer bottle. 'Hey, I didn't mean it in a bad way; I just want you to trust your own intuitions. You believe this is right, then go ahead, I don't wanna stop you.'

Stella smiled deeply at Angell, before cracking a small laugh. Stella thought back to those few months, years ago. It all happened in-between Flack joining their precinct and her affair with Frankie. It was Flack that started it all and she didn't mind, she like the company but when push came to shove she realised he was more involved with his work than she believed he'd ever be with her. It didn't hurt her much she had Frankie to console her but she was hoping, for Angell's sake that Flack did truly love her deeply. She wasn't going to have him say or do anything that would hurt her.

'But, honestly. How was it with him?' this time it was Angell interested in past relationships.

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'Dude, that was years ago. Like when she first joined. It was just a fling.'

'You still went out with her Danny. What is she really like?'

'I don't know I didn't do the whole emotional bit back then, we kindda jumped into it,' Danny remembered, it was at least 3 or 4 years ago now, before anything happened with Lindsay. Nothing had actually happened between them – they just happen to do too many cases with each other and one night after too many beers the next morning came a little to quickly for both of them waking up in bed together in a more compromising position that Flack and Angell had found them selves that morning. They had kept it going for a few weeks but she soon found someone else and he decided his try on Montana. She wasn't a rebound in anyway, Danny and Angell had made a truce that no emotions had brewed up between them and that they would stay professional whatever happened. Danny was glad when there was no awkwardness between them after that but he still remembers the heat off her body in the dead cold and her deep kisses in the middle of the night.

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'So, what are you going to do about it?' Lindsay had gotten this round of drinks. She did, though, have a failed attempt at trying to get Angell to have something less 'manly' like the fruit juice and vodka cocktail she was indulging herself in but Angell insisted on her traditional bottle of beer.

'I'm going to wait,' Angell played with her empty bottle, spinning it around the table. It was getting late now, the pub was emptying but a few later shifters came through looking as tired as hell.

'What do you mean?'

'I want him to be the ultimate gentleman and make the first move. I don't want to have to ask him for it,' Angell just shrugged; she wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying anyway. The alcohol was getting to her but then so was drowsy sleepiness.

'You are such a romantic,' Stella said beginning to stand up. She gave out a yawn and though you'd thought she was accustomed to late nights and hard days she was just like everyone else in the world - she needed her sleep.

'Come on, move you asses, we've got work tomorrow. Don't want you lot coming in with a hangover,' Stella tried ushering them on but no one would budge.

'I keep wondering, what would happen if he told me he felt nothing,' Angell was becoming sentimental now, thinking about the negatives of their relationship. She knew she did this often, but it almost a reflex from way back when. Ever since she was a child when ever she was tired or sleepy she could suddenly come up with all sorts of confessions or regrets.

'Think about that tomorrow, Jess. To night you're going back to his place and not sleeping in his room. Like you said you wanted him to make the first move.'

The three women left the pub and hailed a taxi. They lived in a sequential order; well Flack, Lindsay and Stella lived in a sequential order. The cab would take them past Flack's corner where they'd drop Angell off before moving on towards Lindsay's then Stella's.

As they sat in the back of the cab together Angell rested her head against the cold glass of the window. She was sitting at the side with Lindsay's head rested on her shoulders. She was dreaming, staring out at the passing neon lights that illuminated the streets around her. She was thinking about him, at one point the taxi had stopped in front of a glowing blue neon sigh. Her mind couldn't help but imagining herself staring straight into Flack's bright blue eyes. She wasn't sure whether he was going to be home or not and was glad he'd lent her a key.

'Okay, I'll see you tomorrow, Jess,' Stella was the one that brought her out of her night dream. She hadn't noticed the taxi had stopped at the corner already. Smiling and saying bye she got out of the cab and looked down the long street. There wasn't anyone on it, just a tramp on the other side of the road sleeping in a huddle. The air was cooling down and a promise of rain seemed to be lingering in the air. She started walking, listening to her heels contact the ground. Her detective skills seemed to be getting the best of her since, even though she swore she wasn't paying attention to anything, she could hear another set of shoes following her. They were softer pats on the ground, almost silent ones. Angell started to become fearful someone was following her. She tilted her head slightly to the side in hope of seeing someone there but there was nothing. She tried to walk faster this time listening for an increase in the in pace of her follower and she heard it. Now she was becoming seriously freaked out.

She could see Flack's apartment just up a head so she decided to head for it. Speeding up irrationally fast she keyed in the entry code and pushed the door hard. She felt safe inside the hall of Flack's apartment but safety didn't last long. She decided against the elevator only because she didn't want to have to wait for it so she began walking up the stairs. She took is causally making her way up to the 6th floor until she heard it again. The same soft patter of the shoes. They had followed her in. She didn't know how but who ever it was had come into Flack's apartment. This spurred hundreds of possibilities for who it might be – simply a person who lived in this block or maybe the person who ransacked her apartment.

Trying not to make a sound she started skipping steps rushing up faster and faster to Flack's floor. Her followers foots steps didn't get any faster though and she was thankful but she decided not to take any risks. Burst out into the main hall of the 6th floor she began fumbling in her bag for the keys as she walked towards his door. She began panicking even more when she realised she couldn't find it. _This isn't time for fun and games, _she told herself. She was now in front of Flack's door, for the sake of it she knocked twice but there was no instant reply, she began searching her bag faster. Another knock, still no reply. She could hear the squeaky metal door of the stairs opening. Angell closed her eyes for a moment and prayed it was no one before rapidly pounding against Flack's door one last and there was still no answer.

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**A/N: **Hello, and what brilliantly strange afternoon it is – how is it possible for the sun to shine SO darn brightly and for it be raining so heavily at the same time? Well, how's it going so far? Good, bad, should I stop here before the computer implodes? XP Nah, well tell me what you think okay! I know there are lots of people out there who are reading but have not reviewed XP Plus, I'm thinking of renaming the story and I want you're help please! I suck at titles as you might have seen from my chapter titles but yeah, tell me what you think would be good!


	10. Chapter 10: Paranoia or the Truth

**Paranoia or the Truth**

**Summery: **Who will save Angell??

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **Slightly important A/N below – well no not really but do read (oh and review chapter once you've read would be good too!)

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On most quiet, brisk New York evenings you'd expect people to be tucked away nicely in bed or out for a coffee or maybe even at home watching the television; dreams and hopes were all these things for one person. Night had fallen, people were asleep and even the porter had nodded off for a bit but they was still awake, waiting for something, someone. The cool and quietness of the evening lend a hand in making him invisible but then so did the thick black jumper and sweat pants he was wearing. He was waiting at the corner of the street, far enough from the building to not be seen but close enough to watch the door. Time went by slowly; the mechanism of his watch echoing in the still air but when all hope seemed lost, the steady rapping on her heels on the ground spun hope within him.

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Everything around her began moving in slow motion. The sound of footsteps at the end of the corridor was ringing clearly in her ears. It was almost as if the whole room started spinning as the adrenaline rush of blood pumped into her head. _It was most probably paranoia,_ she told herself, _nothing to worry about_. But she still heard the footsteps, slowly but steadily moving up the hall.

She tried, with confidence, to peer down the hall but the dim lights only illuminated his shadows. She gave one last rummage through her bag for the keys she brought out her off duty weapon instead. There wasn't much use of it since her follower had yet to make to a threat towards her but she wanted to be prepared. Leaning herself against the door she began whispering Flack's name under her breath.

She didn't believe in miracles much, she didn't really believe in fate or fortune too, but there must have been something about the silent prayer in her heart that made the door behind her swing open.

It wasn't how she'd have imagined falling into someone's arms to have felt like but then she'd never expected to fall into someone's arms at all and it was only the moment she looked up did she see who it really was. Flack was standing behind her arms wrapped around her waist with a perplexing facial expression.

'Jess?' he questioned it oddly as if he wasn't sure who it was due to his dimly lit apartment.

Regaining her consciousness and posture Angell jumped out of Flack's arms and walked back out into the hall scanning it for any signs of life.

'What's wrong?'Flack joined her in the hall looking around. Angell was acting agitated, clearly scared of something. She walked up and down the length of the hall and even peered out the small window at the end of the corridor. As she walked back, Don grabbed her by the shoulders and gently shook some sense into her, 'Jess, talk to me?'

She took a big step and closed the gap between her and Flack and leaned in so her check was against his, 'I think I'm being followed,' it was merely whispered it into his ears.

'What?' he asked her back, wanted her more to elaborate than leave it there. She took one more look around the hall before pushing Flack and herself into his apartment. She was running her hand through her hair, clearing her head as she placed her weapon back into her bag before speaking again.

'Where were you? I thought no one was home, I was going to be stuck outside and what would have been worse was I thought you might have stayed at Danny's and I would have slept outside or something. I have no idea where I left my key. I guess I left it here when we left together or something.' she was talking fast, aiming everything she could at him, she didn't want to be angry at him, he didn't do anything wrong, but she was still talking on a whim that someone might have actually been stalking her.

'I was in the shower. I only just came back. I would have never left you out there,' she was digressing asking him what he was doing; he wanted to get back on track to what he was sure she mentioned outside. 'What did you mean when you said someone's following you?'

He was watching her, pacing up and down his hall. Her mind must have been spinning with all the alcohol in her system. She probably could keep a straight mind. Everything she saw, heard might have just been the effect it was having on her. 'I got out of the cab at the corner right? Started walking towards your building when I heard someone following me, I didn't see who it was or anything but the moment I got into the apartment started walking up the stairs to here I heard him still following me. There is someone out there with a huge grudge against me, Don, and it starting to freak me out.' She was speaking fast, trying to get everything out of her system. The previous day at her apartment was still on her mind and with everything that happened tonight was sure someone was out to get her.

'You mean, you're being stalked?'

'Yes, Don. What else do I mean?' she was frustrated and no doubt tired so she flopped herself onto his couch, leaned forward and buried her face into her hands.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say something offensive…' he stopped himself. He didn't really know where to go from there. _Could this just be hard evidence that maybe Danny was right? Maybe someone wants to hurt Angell?_

He was somewhere in his own thoughts when he heard Angell starting to sob from her position. He didn't know for how long she'd been crying but he pulled her up and embraced her in a hug.

'Hey, hey. Everything alright, okay? You're safe don't worry.'

'I was just scared Don. I had no idea what to do,' her face was buried in the crook of his shoulder and he could feel her warm tears falling n his shirt. 'I didn't really know what to do. When you didn't answer and when I could find my keys I believe it was the end.' She wasn't used to having people see her cry. She was always strong and made sure she was able to contain her feelings, four brothers saw to that, but ever now and again she couldn't help it. Stress and even breakups just caused her to let it out more than she'd like but it just had to happen.

Her tears started to subside a little when she began to realise how childish she must have looked in Flack's eyes but when she tired to pull away he held her tightly.

'We have to report this, Jess.'

'What? No,' she looked up at Flack, his bright blue eyes were staring down at her. They made her want to believe him and trust him but she knew her own mind. She didn't want to be over powered by how mesmerizing they were, 'It was probably one of you're neighbours. I could just be paranoid.'

'Jess, with everything that's happened to you, you need to. You need protection okay. Tomorrow when we get in we're going straight to the Captain okay?' maybe he was going a little too over board but she still didn't know about the connection between the cases.

All she did was shake her head, 'I can't. I don't want to the Captain to see.'

'Why are you trying to run away from him?'

Angell didn't answer but instead slowly, loosened Flack's grip around her. He was reluctant to let go it was her choice, 'I'll be fine,' she said it blandly, no emotion, no feeling what so ever.

Flack watched as she walked into her room and shut the door behind her. She was a complex person – someone he still didn't truly understand but he hoped that one day, maybe even one day soon she might just explain everything to her – she would let him into her little world and he would be able to fix everything, make everything better again.

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Angell could feel the warmth of the shower pounding against the top of her head; she had slid down the side of the wall and held her knees towards her chest tightly. Again she was dwelling over her evening, again the horrors had reduced her to feeling lost, useless and unable to control anything around her. She hated being in this situation, one that doubted everything around her. It reminded her too much of what her mother said to her before leaving for the academy, _We're letting you do this because we believe you can take care of your self, because we believe you are old enough to understand the consequences. _She hated how she was careless towards that before, how she thought the whole world was fine and dandy and that she would never get hurt. She was wrong and especially with this job there should have been deliberate views of these things happening - they didn't train you for 4 years for nothing. But still. She was only human; it was expected for her to feel like this.

She got out of the warmth of the shower and stepped, once again, on the stone cold marble floor. She dressed and as she was about to go to bed, felt uneasy. She thought back to Flack and how she treated him and left him there when he tired to help. She felt sorry and in need of apologies towards him.

She quietly creaked open her bedroom door and he was there, watching late night reruns of a baseball game. She could see how unenthusiastic he was and how tired, when he didn't cheer for a homerun she was starting to get worried. She watched the back of him for a moment or two longer, she watching how peaceful he was sat there, quiet and alone – feeling how sorry she was.

'Don?' she wasn't sure if he was going to turn around or if maybe he'd fallen asleep in her time standing there but she was glad when he turned around.

'Hey, I thought you'd got to sleep,' he got up to greet her. V_ery gentlemen like_, she thought to herself as they sat down together.

Angell couldn't understand why she was feeling so nervous at this point. He hadn't done anything but focus back on the television. Her eyes glanced to the clock and it was about to strike 1. She wanted to go to sleep but wanted to make sure he did to. 'It's late, you're not sleepy?'

'No, I am,' he answered, 'Just waiting to make sure you're in bed first.'

Angell smiled, he was worried about her, he really did seem to care, enough that small gestures like these mean so much more than they should. She stood up and walked over to the tv switching it off by the screen before slowly grabbing his wrist and pulling him up. He was looking down at her wondering what was going on but she just wanted to be kind back to him.

'I'm sorry about just now. You're right about everything, so I'm sorry if I snapped or seemed as if I didn't trust you,' she was smiling up at him, looking deeply into his eyes. She didn't think she deliberated her next move well but she didn't want to go too far so she stood on her tippy toes and gave a peck on his check. Maybe a little longer than should have but she still did it.

When her lips parted from his check and she stood back on the flats of her foot she could feel her cheeks starting to burn up. She couldn't allow her self to look straight at him so she looked down instead, taking interest in his carpet and chairs.

He didn't say anything for the rest of the night about that and she wouldn't start the conversation unless he did, so they both kept quiet. She stayed with him that night though, under his request but they kept it civil, not touching or even cuddling together everything seemed to careful and Angell blamed it all on herself, _did she step in to early?_

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**A/N: **I'm not too pleased with this chapter but I seem to be suffering from writer's block too at the moment… Strange since I have my whole plot written down and everything. I'm reluctant to get a Beta-reader since I don't like people reading my work before it's submitted (strange, yeah I know) but if anyone wants to Beta-read my next chapter I'd be much willing to do so since my writer's block makes me blabble a bit. So anyways, please review and tell me what I need to do to make my piece more interesting!


	11. Chapter 11: Feelings and Emotions

**Feelings and Emotions**

**Summery: ****-**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **Sorry this took so long. I have been really busy but now I have a three day weekend I am glad I finally got at least one chapter up now. I'll try and get one more up before my weekend is over so hang in tight.

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The next day started awkwardly and, for the most of it, silent. Angell awoke alone, embracing the empty coldness of the bed while Flack awoke early to make breakfast. There was something heart-warming and satisfactory about watching him acting normal in his own little world as she hid behind his bedroom doors watching him sing along to the radio. It was sweet and tender and, as long as everything was alright between them, she believed she could do this every morning, except, Angell wasn't sure how everything was going to be alright. After the previous night's silent retreat she would be surprised if Flack said anything to her. She desperately wanted to know how he felt but she couldn't find the right way, or any way for that matter, to ask him.

After finally leaving the confines of the bedroom, dressed in her attire for the day, he cleared up his plates from breakfast leaving her to eat alone. Nothing much was said but, as Angell was sitting down, she noticed he looked different. He was happy and smiling so she believed that nothing was wrong between them but there was this awkward need to not saying anything. As if saying something would break the comforting silence between them. So aside from 'Good Morning', 'How was breakfast?' or 'Can I drive?' nothing much else was said.

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'I can't take it!' Angell was sitting slouched in her chair staring at the dull greyness of the precinct ceiling. Her head was resting on the back while her arms were propped up on the arm rest messaging her temples. 'He just didn't say anything and we haven't talked since last night. I mean everything fine until I had to go do that!'

'It was just a kiss on the check, Jess,' Lindsay gave out a sigh as she leaded against Angell table looking sympathetically down at her. For the better part of their easy-going morning, Angell and Lindsay stayed together talking over last night. Lindsay had originally come down to talk to Angell about a case but upon entering and seeing her with her head against the table she knew something did go right. However, as much as Angell did tell Lindsay – she omitted anything and everything to do with her stalker.

'Yeah, but maybe he's angry at me. Maybe, he wishes I didn't do that. Maybe, he wishes I wasn't there anymore!' she'd been running a million and one reasons through her head about why he wasn't speaking to her – because he liked someone else, because he didn't know how he felt towards her, because he didn't want a relationship, because he saw her as a friend. 'Maybe, I stepped over the line. Maybe he has rules about relationships that I don't know about.'

'Jess, stop it! You're being paranoid. Everything going to be fine. You two get along like a house on fire – he'd probably got a lot on his plate right now,' Lindsay was trying to be supportive, Angell could see that but her judgement was being clouded by everything that had happened to her. She wanted someone there; someone to make sure everything was going to be alright. She wanted Flack to know how she really felt about him but she didn't know how to tell him.

Angell had closed her eyes to help her brain process and only in the distance could hear Lindsay's next remark, 'Oh dear.'

'What?' as she sat up she noticed Flack, walking directly towards her desk. She hadn't seen him since they entered the precinct that morning and now a sudden rush was making her wonder what to do. Inside she was panicking, she wanted to leave right there and then but she knew she couldn't. She could fake that she was busy but it was obvious she was talking to Lindsay. Her mind was so jumbled with things to do, things to say, she could feel an early on set of a nervous breakdown.

As he approached he seemed stern, maybe even slightly angry all due to his posture and facial expression that could be seen by everyone in the precinct but it was his bright blue eyes that gave away his true feelings of concern, sadness and fear. His fists were clenched tightly and hanging by his side until he reached Angell table where he placed then down flat and looked at her straight in the eye, 'Can I talk to you? Privately?'

Lindsay, smiling at both Flack and Angell before quickly hopping off the table while pretended to be preoccupied straightening her clothes, 'Well, you know what - I should be heading off. I'll see you later for that case… meeting… thing.' Smiling, one last time she turned and left the two alone at Angell's desk.

Angell, who had yet to say something, sat quietly, playing with her hair while she avoided any eye contact with Flack. 'Depends what it's about,' she said, finally answering his question.

'I… just need to talk to you,' Flack was quiet, his voice subtle and claming but maybe a little too clam that it showed his eagerness to get something off his chest. When Angell didn't reply to him, he felt he couldn't just walk away so he leaned off her table and leant out a hand towards her like she'd done that last night, 'Follow me?'

Angell silently and reluctantly got up, without taking Flack's hand, and followed him to the locker rooms. It wasn't the most secretly place to hold a conversation but it was somewhere quiet and most probably empty. As they entered Flack gestured for her to be seated in on the wooden bench separating the lockers but she refused. Instead leaned her back against the cold, metallic lockers and looked down, allowing her hair to drape across her face.

'Jess,' Flack stared, softly and too staring at his own feet. 'You're probably going to hate me so much for what I am about to tell you-'

It sounded bad to Angell but tasted even worst on his lips. It was like he was about to break up with her but he knew this was going to hurt her even more. He didn't want to tell her but he had to. Someone else might have done it to spit her or to mock her but he knew she had to know – it was for her own good, whether she liked it or not.

'I told the Captain about last night. I told him everything about someone following you from down the street until my apartment door…' he stopped, only to pause and look up at Angell. She had finally lifted her head. Her hair was still across her face but he could see she showed no emotion.

'Why?' she finally said, voice husky and low.

'Because I had to. Because I couldn't sit back knowing that someone might be out there after you.'

'What's this got to do with anyone following me? How was telling the Captain that I have a stalker going to help?' she tried not to sound angry with him but she felt he heard it that way anyway.

'He's offered a uniform to follow you. Just to look out for anything suspicious he can report it - '

He was cut off from his explanation though. Angell had now leaned off the lockers and took another step towards Flack to confront him, so he could hear everything she had to say, 'Don, I am a police officer, how is having another one following me going to help? I should be able to look out of my self. I shouldn't need someone following me, watching my back for me.'

He could now hear the genuine hatred in her voice but she was right though. It sounded stupid having a uniform follow her but for Flack, just having someone there, if not him, to watch her was enough to make him sleep well at night.

'Jess, listen to me. I know you hate this and I know you think you can stand by your self but let your pride slip for once and believe me when I say, I would be so much happier if I knew you were safe,' he'd take a step close to her. Around a foot was left between them and there was only tension that filled that gap. Flack was looking down at Angell while she studied the floor. Her arms were cross over her chest and her hair covering her emotions.

She didn't want to say what came next and for most of it, it was meant to be under her breath but it in silence of the locker room he heard her clearly, 'What do you care for me anyway?'

'I care for you so much, Jess,' she hadn't expected an answer or for him to lift his hands and place them on her shoulder. 'I care for you so much that if anything happened to you…' he was looking for the right words, the right words to finally tell her how he felt towards her. Every emotion, every feeling, every touch they ever shared clearly hung on the next few words he would say, '… I don't know what I would do. I don't think I could carry on.'

It wasn't what she had expected him to say but if it was anything in the world she wanted him to say it was something along those lines. To know he cared for her and wanted her to be safe and basically just liked her more than ever made she felt a touch of guilt for not noticing it before.

'But then, last night?' she hadn't wanted to say it but it was the only moment she could fine to satisfy her curiosity for what had happened. She wanted to know, she needed to know and after everything he'd just said she couldn't leave here without an answer, 'You haven't spoke to me since then. You never said a word. You never looked at me. If you're saying all that about caring for me, what happened last night?'

She was looking up at him; staring at him right in the face now. She didn't expect him to be nervous, not as much as her at least as she bit her lip hard just to keep concentrated.

'I didn't know what to say,' Flack looked back at her, blue eyes staring directly into her brown ones, 'I thought, that if I said anything I would say the wrong thing. I was scared I might say something that would hurt your feelings but… I guess I never thought that not saying anything would hurt you even more.'

Through his eyes she could see the loss, the desperation and unhappiness he had for himself all because he though he'd hurt her when all she thought was she'd done something wrong.

'I'm so sorry Jess. If I've done anything wrong, said anything wrong. I never meant it. Everything I've ever done for you, I've done it because there is this weakness in me that won't leave you alone and as much as I try, all I want is to be with you.'

It was hurt Angell more than it was hurting him to hear him say all that, to know that she meant all that to him while she thought she was nothing.

Flack hands had slipped down from her shoulders and were now linger at her wrists. She took a deep breath and swallowed before taking his hands in her. Looking up at him and finally releasing her lips from the clutches of her teeth she began to rise up on her tippy toes one last time. Even with her grades in English and her fondness for literature there was no words she could find to answer Flack and if words wouldn't speak then she would let her actions.

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**A/N: **Sorry if tension scenes and well basically the whole thing reminded anyone of that scene in Twilight between Bella and Edward in the forest, it's just I watched it yesterday and I think it's still fresh in my mind – it wasn't meant to turn out like that btw. But still, hoped you liked it! Please review to tell me what you think it is much appreciated. Yes, I know I asked for a beta reader for this chapter but I haven't yet beta read it only because it didn't seem as bad as I thought. I thought I was going to have lots of problems writing this after my major writer's block after the last chapter but it seems fine. Well actually I wont know if it's fine until you tell me so do me a favour and drop me a line. Thanks!


	12. Chapter 12: Almost, Maybe, Never?

**Almost, Maybe, Never?**

**Summery: -**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **I can just say, sorry. For anything I might have written down related to the end of the last chapter. Oh and still unbetaed… Maybe I'll just tell you when it has been betaed XP

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_Looking up at him and finally releasing her lips from the clutches of her teeth she began to rise up on her tippy toes one last time. Even with her grades in English and her fondness for literature there was no words she could find to answer Flack and if words wouldn't speak then she would let her actions. _

Angell stood on her tippy toes looking deep into Flack's blue eyes. They were mere millimetres away from each other, closer than the previous night by far, as they braced them selves for the moment. But she paused, waiting, feeling his warm breath pour over her before finally, using all her will power, she attempted to close the small gap between them, closing in so their lips would touch… except, neither of them would have guessed they would never make it.

A clashing sound of the metallic locker room door made them jump as well as jump away from each other. Quickly trying at act normal, at all costs, they pretended to attended to them selves and rummage through their lockers looking for items they weren't really searching for.

Two male detectives walked pass them not even looking down their aisle. They were talking loudly, as if they wanted to gain attention, about their argument of who between the two was a better shot.

As they past and moved to the far side of the locker room Angell turned back to Flack. His back was to her and she could see his forehead pasted against the locker in front of him. His fists were once again clutched tightly together by his side most likely punishing himself for not making it. Angell wasn't angry at him though, she knew there would be better time and a better place where the memory would last longer. A male reeking, grey coloured locker room wasn't really a place she wanted to remember in 20 years time.

'You alright, Don?' she placed a hand on his shoulder comforting him, making sure he could at least understand that she didn't blame him.

'Yeah, I'm… I'm okay,' he only nodded at her after that but she could see regret written all over his eyes. 'We should…' he pointed towards the open door and Angell nodded, taking his hand in hers, she lead each other out of what would have been an unforgettable moment.

As they walked out and into the blinding lights of the precinct they found Mac, eagerly waiting at Flack's desk, 'Angell, Don – just before I carry on, you two aren't doing anything tonight are you?'

Angell and Flack exchanged glances before looking back at Mac, 'No, why would you think we were doing anything together?' Flack spoke.

They didn't want to establish anything because, truthfully, there was nothing to establish – they had yet to go out on a proper date, they were yet to share a first kiss, nothing about their current status approve them of 'being' in a relationship together.

'I didn't think you two were doing anything together - I was just directly the question generally at both of you,' Mac said rising an eyebrow at Flack's forwardness but carry on thoughtlessly, 'Just, if you're not doing anything why don't you come down to the Jazz club tonight?'

This was something new to Flack and Angell but especially Flack, who had known Mac long enough to know that Mac had never 'invited' anyone to a performance before since he preferred to keep his life, out side a work, private.

'Well, I'm not doing anything. Angell?' Flack looked over at her.

'Hmm,' she answered not really concentrating at first. 'Oh, yeah. Err, I'm free.' Her mind obviously miles away imagining what would have happened moments early. There was almost a wash of guilt that poured over her since she realized it may have been her, that allowed the rude interruption. She paused, she waited, she wanted to savour the moment of being only a breath away from him. Had she of acted faster, urged for the moment more, the whole thing have happened and been over before anyone had entered.

'Good. Just keep it quiet okay,' Mac gave a smile leaving the two detectives pondering over the last few minutes before suddenly turning back towards Angell. 'Jessica, can I speak to you?

Angell nodded leaving Flack alone to carry on his work as she walked over towards Mac, 'Yes?'

'You're apartment,' Mac started but paused to watch Angell's face light up with its mention, 'The case still is unresolved but after processing it over and over we think it's fine for you to carry on staying there from now on. We don't believe you'll be in any danger and I hear from the Captain that you have a uniform following you now?'

Angell dropped her head in slight embarrassment. She was good friends with Mac. He supported her and she looked up to him as a good role model but for him to see her degraded in this way made her feel bad, useless and ultimately powerless, 'Yeah, something happened, it's nothing really.'

Mac nodded in approval, he wasn't going to press on, he could probably figure it out himself what was wrong with her so he didn't push any further but instead handed back her keys and left her standing in the precinct alone.

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Danny exited the elevators and strode purposefully towards Flack's desk. He expected Angell to be hovering over him after how he'd heard the previous night's partying went but instead Flack sat alone, typing eagerly at his computer in the dull, greyness of the precinct.

'Don,' Flack looked up at Danny from his work and gave his a weary smile. 'Where's Angell?'

'Out on call. What can I do for you?

'We had an anonymous tip about half an hour ago. Someone gave us a name of a guy that might have been involved with the shooting of our vic and the break in at Angell's the other day.'

'What? Why wasn't I informed about this?'

'The call went straight to Mac's office. We called the guy in the moment we heard it and he just arrived… We wondered if you wanted to conduct the interview.'

Flack nodded and stood from his chair, 'Who gave the tip?'

Danny shrugged, he didn't know – the call literally went straight to Mac office, not even passing the switch board on it's way so it was a wonder of who knew Mac number.

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One man sat silently at the table with a steaming hot cup of coffee in front of him while he waited for someone to enter the room. Danny and Stella stood behind the tinted glass and watched as Flack enter carrying the traditional brown file and a cup of his own coffee.

'Mr. Thomas, do you know why you're here?' Flack stared reading the man's rap sheet from a brown file while he waited for an answer but the man just nodded at Flack before reaching out to take a sip of his coffee.

'Yeah, it's about that dead girl in the apartment isn't it?'

This time Flack nodded. He took a moment to study Mr. Thomas' movement carefully, trying to place his face along side the few other tenants he'd interview at Angell's apartment. He was a Latino man, early 30s, shaggy hair nothing much for style clothes wise.

'What can you tell me about what happened Wednesday night?'

The guy flinched, eyes darted away from Flack – a sure sign that whatever he was about to say was going to be terribly false, 'All I know is that the moment I came back there was police cars everywhere and people crowded around. I wanted to get back in but they wouldn't allow me. I took a few interviews but I couldn't tell them much I had no idea what had happened. I only found out when one of the other tenants told me.'

'Where were you before you arrived back?'

'At the cinema. It was my day off.'

Flack nodded looking down again on the rap sheet, 'You got any witness that can prove that?'

'I'd give you my cinema ticket but I lost it.'

'Maybe someone at the cinema?'

'I like being discreet,' the man raised an eyebrow towards Flack.

Flack didn't move but concentrated hard on Mr. Thomas. He didn't look scared or worried about what Flack was asking him. He stayed calm, breathing apparently normal, no annoying little gestures that might indicate he was lying. Everything except the fact that he wouldn't make eye contact with Flack showed no signs of having something to hide.

'What can you tell me about the burglary that happened at your apartment the same day?'

'Oh you mean that girl that lives one floor down. Was kindda sad what happened - she was a nice girl. Met her in the laundry room once or twice but never really spoke to her.'

'Did you know the owner of the apartment is a NYPD detective?'

'I knew there was some NYPD person in that apartment but I never guessed it was her.'

'Do you own a gun, Mr. Thomas?'

'Yeah, why?'

'Ever fired it?'

'Besides during a test fire?' he questioned Flack, 'No.'

Flack gave one last nod before getting up and walking out of the interview room. As Stella and Danny stepped out of the viewing room them came face to face with Flack.

'Do you think we can get a warrant for the gun?' Stella asked, curiously at Flack.

'We don't have enough,' Flack shook his head disappointingly. 'Maybe if we dig deeper, see what else we can find on this guy.'

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Lindsay was sat at the CSI coffee room leaning over the brown coloured file frowning. Mac entered and watched Lindsay's concentration for a moment before walking over.

'What's wrong?'

Lindsay looked up startled at Mac and rubbed her eyes, 'I was just handed this case to do and I'm not making any sense out of it.'

'What case is it?' Mac took a seat in the empty stood next to her and pulled the file towards himself.

'It's a cold case from 2 years ago – a murder of a woman. Apparently a bunch of cold case guys were looking through some unsolved and while going through this one, new evidence was found.'

'What's so bad about that?' Mac raised an eyebrow at Lindsay.

'Nothing, I guess… except the bullet found at the scene two years ago has similar characteristics as the bullet we found in Jessica Miller.'

Mac wasn't seeing her point, 'Carry on.'

Lindsay sighed. She'd ran this through her head a hundred of times trying to make sense of it herself so she wasn't sure how much Mac was going to understand if she didn't know what she was talking about, 'Well, that bullet had the same indentations – showing it was probably shot from the same gun or same model at most. But it's not just that, the victim in this – her name was Jessica Jones. She lived alone in Mid-town, she was a kindergarten teacher in a near by school, she was 5' 7 with long brown hair. I hate to say it but this victim and our current one… they have a few things in common.'

'MO of Jessica Jones?'

'Strangulation but she was also starved for up to 48 hours. Autopsy revealed very little stomach contents. She was bounded and gagged, no signs of rape - so in that way it doesn't really relate to our case,' Lindsay looked to Mac for answers. He was leaning against the table thinking hard.

'Anything about the victim's apartment?'

Opening the brown file once again she flicked through the pages before she finally stopped and looked up at Mac, 'It was ransacked but nothing visible was found missing. Everywhere I go, Mac, I end at a dead end. I don't know what to make of all this.'

'Keep looking into this case. Pull up a list of suspects they had, maybe a name might come up in connection with this case.'

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'Stella, Stella, Stella,' Adam came running out of the A/V lab and into the white hallway. 'I think I have something.' Stella had arrived back from the interview between Flack and Mr. Thomas. Danny was running down the phone number that called Mac to see if he could gat anything off of it while Flack built up a more in depth profile of a the possible suspect.

Following Adam into A/V she sat next to him and stared at the multitude of computers displaying several different angels of Angell's apartment's lift lobby.

'I did what you asked and tried to see what I could find by looking through the surveillance and I came up with this,' Adam flicked to the left most screen and played a short clip from one of the camera. The time slot showed 10am after a few seconds of nothing a tall, male dressed in black walked across the screen. He had a black jumper and sweat pants on as well as a baseball cap that covered his face. 'Okay, this guys is entering the apartment at 10 if we fast forward it to 11,' Adam paused for a moment while the pace video speed into halftime he stopped it just as the timer past 11am. 'We can see this guy enter again. But there was no footage of him leaving… See where I'm getting at?'

Stella smiled and nodded at Adam, 'Can you prove it's the same person?'

Adam scoffed at her before turning back to the computer, 'Well, they are wearing the same clothes but yes, I have gone into more detail and using height analysis I have calculated that they are indeed the same height. Can't get anything of facial recognition since he never looks at the camera but still.'

Stella watched Adam type in a few commands into the computer and a measurement of the man's height came up, '5'10 and a bit since this things never a 100% accurate. But I do have something more to show you.'

Stella smiled at him. 'Wow, you've been working hard Adam,' she teased.

'Okay, 12pm and NYPD has started to arrive. There goes Flack, then Mac,' Adam began commentating as the images flew by across the screen. 'Okay here!' he paused the video and they both watched a group of people being held back by a NYPD officer. 'See that guy in the black baseball cap?' Stella looked more carefully, a man was standing in front of a uniform wearing sweatpants, a black baseball cap and a white shirt with a black jumper slung in his arm, 'Look familiar?'

'Well, with a little more height analysis,' he began typing into the computer again and the measurements came back on screen, 'Three 5'10 guys all entering the building wearing a black baseball cap but none of them exited!'

Stella was impressed by Adam. It was true he worked hard and often did more than was asked and he always came out with good results, 'Now how'd they get out?'

Adam opened his mouth to speak but closed it again promptly. He thought for a moment, 'I don't know.'

'Well,' Stella began, 'Angell said she saw the murder fled through the back streets right?' Adam nodded, he'd heard Angell's interview with the Captain about what exactly happened so he was pretty familiar with the case. 'Say he walked around the block and came back in - hence black guy number 2. Angell also mentioned an open window which she swore she always shut. Well, that window leads to a fire escape. If he walked all the way down and entered again through the main entrance it would establish an alibi right?'

'What about mystery man number 1?'

Stella thought for a moment, 'That was how when he first came into the apartment to kill Angell?'

Adam let out a small laugh, before shrugging his shoulders, 'How'd he get into the apartment the first two times, though, if he wasn't a resident?'

'That Adam,' Stella looked over at him, 'is challenge number 2.'

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**A/N: **Sorry, for the delay… Has still been hectic but 2 more days till Christmas holidays… Not like there will be much relaxing since I'll be studying for my mocks but oh well, there will ALWAYS be a little time left over for writing up new chapters… I hope. Review, fave, subscribe – all the things you guys do best thanks! Oh and let me take this time to promote my two new FA vids on my YouTube. Check them out.. I am working on another one but am waiting for some episodes to download so it might take a few more days. Have fun till then!


	13. Chapter 13: Finally and forever in Jazz

**Finally and forever in Jazz**

**Summery: -**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **Sorry for the delay, needed to find time but it kept running away.

**--------**

Don walked around a corner and down the dimly lit streets before reaching the entrance of Mac's jazz club. He'd only been there once before, when he was forced to by his colleagues, after not believing that Mac spent most Wednesday nights playing bass for its band. The club looked shut from the outside but he could hear sounds of a jukebox and people chatting inside. As he carefully pushing the windowed door, warm air and the smell of wine washed over him. There were lots of people around, scattered everywhere with drinks in their hands while chatting. He looked around and noticed lots of the people from the lab, a few from the department and also some government officials he'd seen hanging around. He still had no idea why he was there and mainly came because Mac had offered.

As he walked towards the bar he noticed Danny leaning forward talking to the bartender. 'Danny!' he called over the music and chatter.

'Yo, what's up Don?' Danny turned around, beer in hand.

'What's going on?'

'Mac didn't tell you?'

Don shook his head, 'I was just asked to meet here.'

Danny smiled at him while looking somewhere behind Don, 'Why not go ask him?' He pointed with his free hand to Mac and Stella who had emerged from the crowd of people.

'You're late Don!' Stella spoke first before wrapping her arms around his neck and pecking him on the cheek.

'Late for?' he raised an eyebrow towards Mac and Stella once Stella released him.

'I might have forgot to mention it but it was a surprise birthday for Stella,' Mac spoke shyly from behind Stella and began to turn red when she placed an arm around him.

'It was so sweet of him. He just told me he was performing and wanted me to come watch; I didn't expect the whole lab to be here with a cake that read 'Surprise Stella!''

Don smiled and laughed, 'Wow, really? You did all of that for her?'

Mac shrugged as if it was nothing, 'She deserved it.'

'Aww,' Stella said before leaning over and kissing him on the cheek causing him to turn his head away from the team to not show how bright he turned.

'Well, enjoy and I'm glad you could make it,' Stella gave one last smile at the two of them before leaving back into the crowd with Mac.

'He has it bad for her,' Don said once Stella and Mac were out of ear shot.

'You think we should tell them?' Danny asked.

Don shook his head while taking a sip from his beer, 'Nah.'

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Don continued to walk around for a while just scanning the crowd for someone he knew but besides finding Danny and Lindsay together and Adam and Kendall together, there was no one alone he felt he could engage in conversation with. He share a brief conversation with Hawkes until he couldn't take the words trace, case and evidence any longer and moved on. He debated with himself, while taking a swing at his second mug of beer, about going over to talk to Sid but strayed away when he noticed the rest of pathologist team gathering around him.

Once his third glass was drained he began scouting the floor again and started walking towards the back area of the club, somewhere he had never been before. As he past groups of lab techs he felt a draft of breeze from one of the doors which was left slightly ajar. Opening it slightly he found it lead to a narrow, steep staircase. Out of curiosity he pulled out his pen torch from his pocket, found the switch for the lights and began walking up.

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'Jess!' Stella rushed towards her once she entered. She might have arrived a few hours later than Mac had suggested the party start but as long as everyone was there Stella didn't really mind. 'Glad you could make it!'

'I'm so sorry Stella, I haven't brought anything for you – Mac never told me what this was all about. I only got a call from Lindsay 10 minutes ago telling me everything.'

'It doesn't matter, I'm just happy everyone could make it.'

The three of them then headed their way towards the bar where they each order a drink while Stella told Jess about how much she was enjoying Mac's surprise birthday present. Mac, of course, shying away every time his name was mentioned, hated the limelight of popularity due to everything he'd done for Stella. As Jess started curiously asking about the other attendees of Stella's party, the only thing she got in reply was, 'Don's upstairs.' Nodding understandably Jess stood from the bar excused herself and headed towards the stairs.

She didn't know why but the way Stella mentioned it indicated he was waiting for her. She didn't want to seem eager but she wondered if he'd asked Stella to tell her where he was if she arrived?

She'd never been to Mac's jazz bar before but enjoyed the atmosphere. Her mother was a strike jazz lover and constantly had a jazz cd playing when her father was out late. Jess herself, however, was not such a huge fan. She'd listen to it but almost blindly due to the fact that her mother made her appreciated it thought she rarely did.

As she walked up the stairs the air became colder, the late night was slowly turning into early morning and she tightly pulled her jacket around her to warm her self up. Pushing the heavy metal door she walked out onto the dark, dusty roof top of the club.

'Hey,' she called out to a mysterious tall figure leaning against the balcony railing. There were a few table and chairs on the roof but the temperature wasn't as inviting as the warm atmosphere downstairs. 'Stella mentioned you were up here.'

Don turned from watching the nightly lights of New York brighten the blackness of the sky. He was casual – jeans, a shirt and jacket; nothing formal nothing unacceptable. He stayed where he was, leaning against the banisters and said, 'I just came up here. Was too tired of all the noise and commotion downstairs'

Jess nodded slightly, trying to believe his story. She knew he wasn't 'unsociable' but more he enjoyed the company of himself, 'Right, so you tried to escape the fun, the excitement and the exhilarating enjoyment of celebrating Stella's birthday?'

'I was lonely,' Don answered her straight up – not changing a look in his face or the position of his body. Jess couldn't help but smile though, his cheekiness, without even trying, was inviting. She took a few steps forward and faced the opposite way to Don, staring out into the speckled darkness of New York.

'You look nice,' Don mentioned as he leaned against the banister next to her. She was wearing a small, simple black dress, heels and a cropped black jeans jacket. 'You're also late.'

Jess laughed and shook her head in disbelief, 'I was let into my apartment this afternoon. I spent the whole time sifting through my stuff seeing what needed to go back to the drycleaners and what didn't. This,' she motioned to her outfit, 'seemed to be the only thing that didn't need to be.'

'I think it looks good,' he was trying to compliment her but she wasn't taking any of it. She laughed and looked away and didn't seem to pay any attention to him. He was just trying to be nice, that's what she thought but he wasn't. He couldn't remember a time when he thought she looked more radiant. He loved how simple she could look yet so, prefect at the same time. 'I mean it.'

She turned to look at him this time, watching the illuminate glow of his eyes in the dim light around them. It was like she felt captured looking in them. The idea that she couldn't move because she would instantly start missing the glistening glow his eyes gave out.

'Really?' she asked it softy, under her breath almost. There was little space between them – she could feel his body heat pressing through her jacket sleeve onto her bare skin.

'Yeah,' he said in approval as he turned so his whole body was facing her. There was a slight tension between them possibly due to the increasingly diminishing gap between them but this time they intended on closing it fully.

Don placed a hand on her waist and pulled her closer slightly. The tips of their nose brushed for a moment as they stared into each others eyes foreseeing what was going to happen next. They both knew what would happen but it was a game of who would take the first step and it was unsurprising that he did.

Leaning in, that one last inch, he rested his lips lightly on hers. A moment they both had probably been waiting for, for so long and after that morning he felt he needed to make it up to her – tell her how much he was sorry for everything.

Her lips was soft, as he expected, and tasted very much of fruity lip balm, he could smell her perfume too – a strong, powerful scent that matched her independence. Her dress was soft, satin soft and his hand rested on her hip; her's were slowly finding its way up around his neck as she leaned back onto the banister and he leaned forward onto her.

It was tingly and sensational as they stood there, in the cool breeze, in each others arms. The kiss wasn't exactly powerful and passionate but more simple, sweet and deep. There was nothing extreme, nothing extravagant, nothing except the acceptance that both of them where there, together and they both could want nothing else in the world.

'Do you think we should go down?' Don finally broke it, reluctantly of course but he finally lifted his lips of her's and watched the shimmering light bounce off her golden brown eyes.

'It's getting cold, I think we should,' he let go of her, but only just, so he could keep one arm wrapped around her shoulder as they headed back towards the metallic door that opened into the inviting warmth of the club.

They noticed there wasn't much chatter from the main area of the club but more the sound of live jazz. They headed back towards the bar and found Mac, on stage with the club band, playing bass. He was looking down at his playing but occasionally looked up, glancing into the audience, but everyone knew, Don and Jess knew, that he was only looking towards the front row to watch Stella eagerly watching him play in front of the lab and precinct and any other officers that had made an effort to come.

The song was tuned down, soft, sweet, and matched the glowing blue lights that lighted the stage. As Don and Jess stood at the back of the crowd watching, Don pulled Jess closer, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. They stood, swaying slightly to the calming sounds of the music and enjoyed their little moment because between them they still weren't sure how public they wanted to be but in the dark, black lights of the back of the club where no one could see them, they took the little moment to enjoy how close they could be to each other while among so many people.

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**A/N: **Sorry that was late, have been kindda buys? Well yes, there was prom, then I have a social gathering at my house and my dad came back so I spent time with him, but now, besides studying and going to the cinema - lots - I am free! Yay! Well, hope you like this chapter, little case of 'unsure-what-to-write-ness' but I think I got over it in the end! So, comment, favourite, subscribe – all the things you do best please and oh, if you can think of a better title that 'a day in a life' please tell me I really don't like it but have NO IDEA what to change it to – try something funky and original XP Thanks a lot peeps! Oh and if ANYONE knows the name of the jazz bar Mac plays at pray tell!


	14. Chapter 14: Things said and unsaid

**Things said and unsaid**

**Summery: -**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **I hope you don't get confused in this but anything in _italics_ is a sort of flashback about what happened that night – alright? I'll try to make it clear as possible too.

**--------**

It was early – early, at least, for everyone who had been present at the club the previous night. Everyone in the lab was moving slowly step by step to their destination not really caring about what was happening around them. They all had work to do, they knew that, but with little sleep some of them just couldn't take it.

It was strange, though, to see someone arrive on the floor looking so happy and cheerful at that unearthly hour but then again, when that particular person's always pulling all nighters it felt natural to them.

Everyone on the floor was meant to be there, working, carrying trace from one lab to another but one person, was just taking up space, one person just stood in the way, one person had no real purpose on the CSI floor but was there anyways.

'Wow, you're up early,' Jess said walking into Stella's office.

'Didn't sleep last night,' Stella lifted her cup of coffee as proof before continuing, 'you're in early too.'

'Yeah, well Don had paperwork to do so I thought I'd come in as well,' Jess shrugged it off as if it was nothing and moved over to Hawkes' desk and sat herself in his chair. It was going to be a slow day and since the sun had only just past the horizon fully, she thought, as long as he wasn't going to be there, she'd make use of his chair.

'So, you and Don,' Stella teased Jess about last night. Though Jess and Don had done nothing public that evening she wondered what Stella, and anyone else, might know, 'Oh, only the basics – that you guys were together for the whole night sipping wine in the back booth.'

_Sipping wine in the back booth_ was an old phrase Jess remembered from her high school days when her and her friends would spend their afternoons in the diner and comment on which couples were in the back booth alone together. She'd used it once in the lab and since then it had made permanent residence in Stella's vocabulary – not something she would have imagined.

'We didn't do anything;' she reassured Stella but got an I-know-better look instead, 'What you don't believe me?'

'Who doesn't believe what?' Lindsay came walking through Stella's office door carrying a set of case files. Taking her place at one of the two empty desks next to Stella she began engaging herself in the conversation.

'Stella doesn't believe nothing happened between me and Don last night at the party.'

Lindsay shot a dumbfound look at Jess and said, 'I don't believe you!'

'What!' Jess cried falling back into Hawkes' chair looking up at the ceiling.

'Come on. Spill it,' Stella leaned back comfortably, waiting on the start of the Jessica's explanation. She knew romance when she saw it and she was looking at it right now. She often wondered if she had some sort of mystical power that gave her this gut feeling about something before someone told her. Like right now she just knew something had happened between Don and Jess and she was determined to find out what.

'Guy, honestly,' Jess tried her hardest, pleading, begging, hoping that they would believe her. She was a detective for crying out loud why couldn't she convince someone she was lying. 'I swear…'

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_It was late, maybe 2, 3 in the morning. They had just arrived back at Don's apartment both stinking slightly of booze. They were sober though, just a little tipsy as they stumbled down the hall in each others arms. The night was quiet so they thought they ought to be as well, just so they 'wouldn't wake the neighbours', he said. He fiddled through his pocket for a key but ended up pulled everything, but what he was looking for, out of his pocket; cell, wallet, candy wrapper. Jess joked about it, point out that he could never go out without something that resembled food. He laughed, silently along with hers as they sat together outside the apartment. Occupying most of the hall floor they just sat, laughing, talking, being normal. _

_Jess wondered how many of his neighbours knew he was a police officer and if they walked out of their apartment there and then what would they say. This caused one of thoughs moments you probably only see on television or in film – where suddenly the whole atmosphere around the two changes dramatically and there becomes some form of sexual tension between them. They both felt it; they didn't need someone to point it out that there was an urge attracting the two together. Something pulling them as their eyes locked and wouldn't divert. Some form of urge that forced him to reach out, grab the top of her dress and pull her in for their second kiss. _

_A more passionate kiss this time, a more real kiss. Not an 'I'm sorry for before' or 'I hope this is alright' kiss but a proper 'I want you right now' kiss. Their release was only followed by a sudden search for the house keys which they found amongst the clutter that was pulled from Don's pocket. Forcing it into the door, the moment Don closed it they were back where they started. In each others hands, lips searching for their destination. _

_Maybe it was fate that actually led them to the bedroom because neither of them knew where they were going. By chance did they miss hitting into the sofa all together and only gravity could judge how they would fall, perfectly square in the middle of his bed, him on top of her. _

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'So?' Danny perching himself on Don's desk. He'd come down to see to another detective that was running his case but stopped by to check on his new favourite love bird.

'What do you want Messer?' he answered bluntly not even looking up from his work.

'Who says I want anything?' Danny gave a little shrug and starred off into space somewhere giving an obviously give away that he was waiting for something.

'You wouldn't come over here if you didn't,' Don finally stopped writing and looked up at Danny who gave him a wide eyed I-know-nothing look. He'd been friends with Danny for too long – he knew how he worked. It was after nights like the previous one that questions arose about couples but Don just never expected him to be the one being questioned.

'Do you have wager?'

Danny shrugged but avoided eye contact with Don, 'Maybe…' he waited for Don's reaction but he just got a cold, hard blue stare instead. 'Alright, 50 bucks,' he said sheepishly cowering behind himself.

Don only shook his head in disappointment, if that was the case, he wasn't going to share anything and let Danny lose the 50 bucks that rightfully wasn't his. Maybe it was little unfair for him to be doing this though. Come to think of it, it was very unfair. There'd been a bet going around about Danny and Lindsay and Don found it perfectly okay to collect 50 off the rest of the team when he got their hook-up date right.

'Come on, Don,' he waited for his answer before using the sympathy approach, 'I'm a friend.'

'The rest of them's my friend as well but you don't see me giving them any answers,' he merely raised an eyebrow to that.

'Don? Flack? Come on? Please?' it was funny, actually seeing Danny bringing his hands up begging. How could he really want that 50 bucks so bad?

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_They continued; hands searching each other, lips connected, finding away to get closer than they already were. There was a cooling breeze that blew in from the open window and tingled their skin. Goosebumps rose from the electricity that sparked a connection within them causing them to become inseparable from each other._

_His hands travelled up, along her leg, to the hem of her dress where it waited for its next command, while his other hand in time, found there was no zip, no buckle, no latch to undo her dress. Her hands, in the mean time, were trailing his back, slowly moving forward towards his shirt buttons, egging to undo them. Their eyes were shut and mentally had no idea what was happening, instead they let their minds go to rest while their hands, bodies, lips created mental pictures for them. _

_His moved his hand higher now, lifting the bottom of her skirt exposing more flesh to the cool breeze. This tickled her, made her gasp, made her enjoy it but as his hand rose higher, a washing flood of deepened and hated memories came back to haunt her. Inter turmoil caused her to forget her surroundings, panic, struggle to get out of there._

'_No, stop,' she whispered softly into his ear quickly trying to release herself from his grasp. He hesitated, unwilling to let go of her but released her when she pulled herself from under him and tried to soot away. _

'_What's wrong?' she'd turned her whole body away from him, she huddled up into her self trying to fix the strap of her dress, trying to forget what just happened. He sat behind her, whispering into her ear, but she wasn't listening. He placed his hands on her shoulders but she jumped from the touch of his hands on her bare skin. _

'_Jessica?'_

'_Don't call me that!' she snapped back at him turning away, moving into the darkened corners of his room. _

'_Jess, what's wrong?' he was up now, moving slowly, cautiously towards her. He wanted to condole her, find out what he'd done wrong. 'Jess,' she wouldn't reply to him, 'Jess I'm sorry. What's wrong? Jess, answer me?'_

_There was a moment of silence, a moment of wondering what to do next. Don stood between Jess and the rest of the room. Jess stood huddled against the hall, hiding her face, her posture, hiding herself. _

_She finally turned around, letting the light from the moon shine through the window and illuminate her features; tears were outlined in black from her dripping mascara. 'You want to know,' she paused, 'why I jumped when you touched me? Because he took that take that same path – that was where he went first. I can still remember the feeling of his hand, trailing up along, touching me everywhere. I can still remember they way he called my name. They way he said, Jessica. Sometimes I even dream of it. Remembering everything he did to me. He created my own little personal hell.'_

'_Who? Jess, what happened?'_

'_You want to know? You want to know why I have always hated the Captain. Why I despise him and everything about him?' _

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The three women sat together, laughing together, forgetting their work, their jobs, their friends and families and, even, haunting dreams.

'Um, Stella?' their chatter was broken by Adam, carefully standing by the door way holding a case file in front of him, protectively, almost in a way that would shied himself from the women in front of him.

'Yes?' Stella answered face lit but the day light had found its way through the blind windows.

'You know that piece of paper we thought might have been from a photo?'

Stella nodded affirmatively, 'Yeah the one from the back alley way… What about it?'

'Well, after analysis Detective Angell's apartment I took Danny's advice and looked through all the photos and found that the corner, we found, is an exact match to this photo,' he held up the electronic board to show Stella and a photo of Angell flashed on the screen. It wasn't an old photo, maybe a year or so but it wasn't as old compared to the many photographs she had of her as a child in her apartment. The photo was taken at a charity dinner she and few other carefully selected detectives were asked to visit. Flack was there and she remembered this mainly due to his encounter with his ex - Devon.

'Where did you get that photo?' Jess stood up and walked to Adam.

'You're apartment. Why?' he back off when Jess grabbed the electronic board off him and carefully examined the photo.

'Why does a piece of evidence from the Jessica Miller case come back to me?'

'Because your cases are link?' Adam didn't have the answers or at least he thought that everything was clear and everyone knew everything, in which, everyone actually didn't.

'Since when has the Miller case and mine been connected?'

'Since… Wednesday when it happened?' Adam was lost, thoroughly lost. Jess was question him on answers he didn't have. As a lab tech he did have much field experience. He was invited out on a few cases but on Angell's case he wasn't – what went on he only knew from reading the case report.

'Stella?' Jess turned to her colleagues sitting in her chair. Stella was looking at the floor, diverting her eyes from Jess's gaze.

'He didn't tell you?' Stella was afraid of asking it. In her mind it sounded like a dumb question, it was obvious Jess was lost. Jess had no idea what was happening. Jess was obviously excluded from the loop. 'Danny came up with a theory at the crime scene that the murdered and you're B and E was connected. It was only based upon the fact that you and victim looked a like but now evidence has been analysed it seems that… you were the intended target.'

'Also,' Lindsay added, 'I've been assigned a cold case which again has significant resemblance to your B and E and the murder.'

Jess looked blankly at Stella and Lindsay – still trying to process everything that she said. Since when had she been the main victim of Wednesday's case? Since when had it been animate that her life might be in danger? Why hadn't the main detective on the case told her any of this? Why had Flack not mentioned anything?

--------

'_It was around 6 months ago. There was this case that was really getting to me so one day I decided to let lose- I headed to a bra, alone, obviously, I didn't really want anyone around and I guess I mistakenly walked into a cop bar without noticing. I had a few drinks, was left alone for most of the evening but then suddenly I was approached by this guy. I had no clue who he was and was probably too drunk to care so I followed him out. He took me somewhere and… that's when it all began,' Jess had slid down the wall and pulled her legs up to her chest, hiding herself. _

'_I remember everything about the night, the way he smelt – his strong cologne, the way he tasted of sodden beer, even the way he touched me. He started low, moved up; his hands enjoyed exploring down there. I don't believe I liked it, I actually enjoyed it. I probably would have, as well, if it was anyone else but when I woke up I found out it was him, I couldn't stop hating myself. I remembered everything when I was drunk, everything except the way he looked. And when I woke up in the morning I found out it was him I didn't know what to do. I tried leaving, I tried explaining everything was a mistake but he didn't believe it. He kept saying how I was just using him and how ungrateful I was for what he'd done. I wasn't ungrateful; I just couldn't believe it was him. And we came into work the next day he insisted on me following him back home that night to 'do it all over again'. I told him it was an accident he said I used him. I didn't know what to do or what to say. I just avoided him, tried my best to be as far from him as I could and after a month he started to act disrespectful towards me he shunned my work, told me I wasn't doing it properly. He began degrading me for no reason.'_

_Jess stopped, she spoke softly and quickly and just tried to get everything out of her. This was the first time she'd told anyone about what happened that night. She wasn't proud of her self either and that was probably why she kept it quite._

'_Why didn't you tell me?' Don came over, carefully, slowly inching his way towards her keeping his hands to him self. _

_She only scoffed at his commented, answering sarcastically, 'It's not something you lightly insert into a conversation.'_

'_I could have helped,' Don sat next to her, facing her watching how her vacant eyes stared into oblivion. _

'_He said he'd threaten my work. He said no one would believe me. He said I insisted on it and even though I was drunk it wouldn't be classed as rape so nothing could be done about it. I did something foolish Don and I'm never letting myself live it down.'_

'_It's not you're fault,' Don came closer, draping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her in. 'I'm not blaming you for making the wrong choice.'_

'_You might not be… but I am.'_

_--------_

'What the hell were you thinking Don?' Jess had dragged Don from his desk and pulled him across the precinct and into the locker rooms where she pushed him against the lockers with all her strength. She was angry; she needed to vent it out somewhere.

'What are you talking about?' straightening himself he pulled on his jacket.

'You didn't tell me the Miller Case and my B&E are connected! And now this cold case?'

'I didn't think you needed to know.'

Jess just looked at Don, she couldn't comprehend what he was thinking but then she couldn't comprehend what she was thinking either. How could he think she didn't need to know?

'Don, my life could have been at stake that day. I could have died. Maybe if you had of told me I would have looked at the two cases as one and made a connection that might have helped catch the guy but no, now he's still out there Don. I am still a possible victim!'

'I didn't want you to worry.'

Jess scoffed at him not believing his words. He'd helped her the previous night, that was true but now it felt like nothing if he thought he could let something like this slip. Jess turned away, she couldn't face him. Her emotions were running high with angry, frustration and hurt. She didn't know what to make out of all of it.

'Jess, I'm sorry. I was going to tell you… I just didn't know when or how,' he reached out a hand to her but she shrugged it off.

'You have no idea how many times I've heard that.'

'I was scared okay.'

It was that moment everything turned around.

'I was scared that this might happened, that you'd freak out.'

She wanted to believe him. She wanted him back but she didn't know how to accept.

'I was just scared something might happen and you'd get hurt. I wanted to watch you, protect you and when you said someone was following you I didn't know what to do. I was so afraid it was him. I could lose you. Jess, I could let you slip away.'

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**A/N: **Sorry that was a bit of lengthy chapter… Tell me what you think okay – Review you guys cuz I know there are lots of you out there reading but not saying anything… I'm watching you!


	15. Chapter 15: in the Night: I

**In the Night (I)**

**Summery: -**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **

**--------**

'Jess?'

She turned and looked at him, forcing herself to stare hard into his blue eyes, 'I don't know. I don't know much anymore… You think you're scared? I don't know how to feel. Should I be afraid? Should I hide until you catch him?' she stopped trying hard to stop the tears from falling. 'I don't know what to do now, Don. I woke up believing everything was alright but now… I scared to leave because I don't know what's out there.'

Don watched from the other side of the locker room. He felt helpless under the burning light, one single tear falling down her cheek now. She was trying hard to fight away the tears; he'd never seen her like this. Helpless, scared, confused.

'I thought this was all going to brim over quickly, that nothing major was going to come out of it but I don't know… what happens if he tries it again Don? What happens if you're not there? What am I meant do? Now, right now – what do I do? I'm scared okay, I'm scared.' She lifted her hand and wiped away the tear that was trickling down her skin. Trying to keep calm he could see her staring to shake. Closing her eyes another set of tears streamed down her face.

Taking two brave steps forward he wrapped him self around her. Holding her tight he could feel her crying into this shoulder. He didn't know what to say. It was his fault; he'd decided not to tell her, he'd decided it was going to be better. Everything would have been better if everything was as straight forward as it was. He didn't think it was going to take that long to catch the guy, he didn't think there would be this much problem. All he wanted was for her to be safe; he didn't want her to worry.

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'Okay, what do you want me to do?' Jess sat at the cold metallic table surrounded by the CSIs and Don. In front of her was the spread of crime scene photos and packet evidence.

Mac leaned over Jess, one hand on the back of the chair one on the desk in front of her, and said, 'We need you to look at all our evidence. Tell us if you see a connection or if you know someone with a connection, anything that might lead us to a suspect.'

Jess picked up the crime scene photos first and flicked through them. She was looking at the crime scene, Jessica Miller's crime scene. There wasn't much there, a body lying in the middle of the room, with a bullet hole in her back. The rest of the photos were the chaos her apartment had turned into.

'No, there's nothing here,' Jess shook her head and looked back up at Mac.

'Maybe one of these names look familiar?' Lindsay handed her a set of papers, 'They were suspects in Jessica Jones' case. Family members, friends, random members of the public.'

Jess flipped through the book but shook her head again, 'None of them stick out.'

'Wait,' Don was towering over Jess reading from behind her. 'Diego Davros Thomas,' he said reading off the paper. 'That was the guy we brought in. Who was he?'

Lindsay took the paper off Jess and flipped through the pages, 'He lived in her apartment block. Apparently was the last person to see her alive.'

'How do you know him?' Jess turned to ask Don but Mac replied.

'We got an anonymous call. Some lady saying Thomas had something to do with the shooting. We brought him in but he gave us nothing.'

Jess gave an upsetting smile and began filing her way through the evidence.

'Where did you get the photo developed?' Stella asked when Jess stumbled on her own photo.

'I used a digital camera but I got a few shots printed specially. The shops down the road think. That camera/ photography at the end of the street. There was a guy there,' she stopped, trying to remember, 'I can't recall exactly what he looked like but he gave me the creeps and kept asking me irrelevant questions about my photos and stuff.'

'What did he look like?' Don asked this time.

'Medium height and build, average guy, Mexican maybe.'

'Latino-ish?'

'Possibly,' Jess nodded her head thoughts somewhere else.

Don shot a glance towards Danny who nodded and left the room quietly. 'Why, what's going on?' Jess asked.

'Don't worry,'

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'Mr. Thomas didn't come into work today,' Danny entered the quiet metallic interrogation room after a good half hour. Walking to the table he threw down a brown file, paper spilling out. Pulling one of the sheets Jess saw a face.

'I know that guy,' she mumbled softly to herself but was obviously over heard. 'I think he lives in my apartment,' she commented louder for the rest of the team to hear.

'Yeah, two floors above you. Know anything about him?' Don asked.

'No, I didn't really socialise much and he seemed pretty quiet.'

Don turned to Danny, 'Address?'

'Just Jess' apartment.'

'Okay, we'll go collect him see what he has to say now,' Don leaned off the wall and walked out of the room.

There was a moment of silence again before the clattering of someone knocking on the windowed door of the interrogation room. Adam stepped in sheepishly.

'I've traced the number that called Mac and it came from a pay phone outside of Angell's apartment. There's no surveillance in the surrounding area so no idea who exactly the caller was but they had to have known Mac's extension because it didn't pass through the operator. That's all I've got.'

Adam stood silently for a moment. The room felt grim. Everyone was looking down, trying to sort out everything without saying anything. Jess mind ran wildly with all the information she now knew but nothing seemed to connect any better than it did before. Who was this Diego Thomas and what did he want with her?

-------

'Mac, he's gone. The apartment was empty and there wasn't much there in terms of living quarters either. Thomas must either have another residence or lives really damn simply.' Don spoke over the phone. It'd been 30 minutes since he'd left and it didn't take long to drive to Jess' apartment, get the super to open the door and for Don to realise there was no one home. 'Does he have other known addresses?'

'Nothing we know of.'

'Okay, I'm heading back.'

'No, luck,' Mac said pocketing his handphone. 'Is there anything else Jess?'

She shook her head still biting her lips and hating herself. They were going round in circles again. She'd looked through all the evidence, several times, and come to no new conclusions. She didn't know who Jessica Jones was, she didn't know who Diego Thomas was, and besides Thomas working at a photo shop she'd never seen him. The anonymous tip had hit a dead end and there was no other evidence to go on. If Thomas doesn't confess to the crime then they are at the start of the investigation all over again.

'Listen, why don't you go back? There is nothing more for you here and it's getting late. We'll up date you if anything so leave you're cell on,' Mac walked to the door and opened it. There was no one else in the room, they'd either been sent off to do other cases or they were trying, in vain, to piece together this unsolvable case. 'Officer Landry will escort you back to Detective Flack's apartment and wait with you until he arrives back.'

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'You know, when I got home I didn't expect a uniform to be waiting outside,' Don smiled as he leaned against this bedroom door watching Jess exit the bathroom dressed in a bath gown.

'Hello to you too,' she smiled at him and turned to face the mirror on the wall. Don watched her, slyly, as she began to dry her hair.

Jess watched his reflection in the mirror as Don shook his head and began stripping himself of his jacket and tie. To any outsider looking in on Don's apartment it would have seemed so innocent. The act of a man and women who, although they weren't, acted in a fashion at read happily married couple. The ease and air around both of them was almost natural however to them it was false. They were two people pretending because in reality they were still just two friends, two colleagues, two people who were in need of each other.

Don sat on the edge of his bed facing Jess. Her back to him as she sat at his dresser, towel in hand. Standing she walked over to a chest of draws and fumbled in one which Don had specially allocated for her stuff.

'You trust me, right, Jess?' he finally said in the darkness of their room.

Jess turned around, still clutching her bath gown, 'Yeah, why?' she looked serene, happy, happier than that morning when she'd confronted him in the locker rooms. She'd come to terms that what Don did was in her best interest, it was to protect her, he just wanted her to be safe and obviously losing her would do more damage to him that anyone could imagine.

Don stood up and walked closer to Jess now only a few inches between them she took a step back and crashed into the draws behind her. 'I just need to know you trust me,' he said before raising his hands and placed them on either side of her, pulling her that last little bit closer. Staring down into her brown eyes he savoured the moment, watching how the glistened and danced in the moonlight that seeped in through the curtained windows. Then he kissed her. One of the few joys he'd found in the world, she tasted still of cheery lip-gloss and smelt like apricot soap. Just like how he'd always remember her, from the day they'd met until now nothing about her changed, she was prefect and golden in everything she did.

As her hands looped around his neck his hands dropped lower, reaching for the ribboned belt that held her gown closed. Between kisses he could hear a mild squirm on protest but he held on tight.

'You trust me right?' he said one more time. With his eyes closed he could hear a murmur of yes escape her lips so he continued, stripping her down of the fluffy bath gown until he could see every bit of her. Tracing his hands along her curves, they glided along her smooth, porcelain skin. Her hands were travelling up his already shirtless chest, fingers tracing into every line and contours of his battle scared body.

And it continued, the rest writing it's self as they carried on, taking that one step further into the relationship they weren't sure of at the start. And as they travel towards the bed, locked in each others embrace the night carried on. People roamed the streets and carried on with their lives while Jess and Don's stopped, for that one moment, frozen in time a memory worth keeping for he'd never expect to think it might be their last.

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The light was flickering on and off in his bedroom. The uniform had recently left, so they were alone, in each others company but still very much alone. And now, now was the right time, now was the perfect time, the exact time, the moment every event leading up to this had created. This was the precise, ideal moment for him stop step forward and stop everything, help them end the investigation that had haunted their mornings and nights for days now. He would make his move… tonight.

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**A/N: ** You have no idea who sorry I am for a late chapter I mean I REALLY REALLY am… I've been unmotivated and busy and I just want the end of exam week to come NOW… PLEASE! Well, enjoy and tell me what you think. I tried to make to gripping at the end so you'd come back for more but I feel I have failed myself… But STILL… reviews are love people and I am in need of some lovin'!


	16. Chapter 16: In the Night: II

**In the Night (II)**

**Summery: -**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **

**--------**

'Honestly, why did you want to become a detective?' Don raised a suspecting eyebrow at Jess while she curled up at the other side of the couch clutching a hot cup of chocolate.

'Because I wanted to prove to my father and brothers that I was better than them. Same question to you,' she brushed away a strand of hair with the sleeve of her over sized jumper, which was technically Don's but he'd allowed her to wear it since the night was getting chilly.

'Because I wanted to prove to my dad that I was a real man.'

'Did it work?'

Don thought for a moment, 'You tell me.'

Jess gave him the same questioning, thoughtful look he'd given her before shaking her head. 'No,' she teased trying to sound serious.

He squinted his eyes and gave her an evil look before chucking an empty packet of potato chips at her. She gave a loud protest as crumbs and potato chip dust came showering over her, speckling the front of her jumper.

'You deserved it,' he said back to her but unfortunately turned a second too early and the top of his head got caught by the corner of a flying pillow. 'Thank you, Jess,' he said sarcastically turning back to her as she grinned furiously at him.

They shared a moment of silence in each others company before Don shuffled over to Jess' side. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders she rested her head on his. Don's TV wasn't on but the soft humming of mellow tunes from the radio was playing in the background.

Finally, unable to take the deafening silence any longer Jess turned towards Don.

'Can I ask you something?' she questioned him.

'Yeah, what is it?' he smooched over slightly to look directly at her.

'Do you l-?.... Whoa, what was that?'

Jess stopped in mid-sentence when they both suddenly found themselves sat together alone, on his couch, in his apartment, in pitch black darkness. The already dimly lit lights, softly playing radio and extra warming heater had suddenly switched itself off leaving the room to be illuminated by the fading street lamp outside the window.

'I think the power just went off,' Don replied in his sarcastic manner.

'No shit, Sherlock. I mean how? Why?'

Getting up from the couch, slowly, they attempted to navigate their way around his apartment, searching for candles or a torchlight. Pulling out a draw Don found two torches and tosses on across the room at Jess, who, surprisingly, caught it in the darkness of the room.

'Do you think it's just us or your neighbours as well?'

Don gave a shrug in the darkness and moved towards his front door. Opening it slowly he peered outside and found the rest of his floor mingling amongst each other chatting.

'What happened?' he asked the women living directly opposite. She was clutching a dressing gown over the night dress, her hair limply sitting on her shoulders.

'I dunno, I was watching TV and then everything just went off. I thought it was just my apartment but then Pam knocked asking if my electricity was on.'

Don nodded a thank you before turning back towards Jess, 'Seems like the whole floors got it. Don't know about the whole building.'

'Is there a generator room up stairs or something?' Jess asked still peering from behind the apartment door.

'I'm not sure, why?'

'My brother's an electrical engineer. Do you have a screw driver?' Don raised an eye at her before pushing past her and back into his apartment. Opening a draw in the side cabinet by the door, where he kept his keys, he pulled out a miniature screw driver. 'That'll do,' Jess said taking it off of him and exiting into the hall.

As Jess began slowly walking up the stairs towards the roof she heard Don talking to a resident behind her, 'Make sure everyone get's back into their rooms. We're going to check the generator… thing… upstairs.' Jess laughed silently to herself of the irony of a man not understanding how to fix a generator compressor.

Finally reaching the door to the roof she twisted the handle only to find the door was locked. _Obviously, _she thought to herself. She waited for a moment before hearing footstep behind her. Turning to face the stairs she crossed her arms and watched as Don's shadow moved to show him carrying a set of keys.

'Met the super on the way up,' he said tossing the bundle of keys at her. She shook her head in disbelief before attempting to fit several different keys into the lock. Finally after minutes of trying they found the one key that fit. Turning it and pushing the heavy metal door open they found themselves in the generator room.

It was an old, musty room with several fuse boxes and what looked like a electricity generator. Heading towards the fuse box first Jess opened the cover and stared in at the breakers.

'None of the main switches seem to be off and no signs of tampering, especially since the door was locked,' she shut the fuse box and headed towards the generator. There was a small hum coming from it but otherwise no immediate signs of life. 'I think the electric company must be doing some back checks because nothing seems to be wrong. They might have only turned it off for an hour or so. It'll come back,' she talked positively and almost carelessly, like she'd done this a hundred times over. They exited together, leaving the generator room behind as they walked down the stairs carrying their torchlights that illuminated the dark stair case.

As they reached Don's floor a sudden loud bang came from where they'd just left. Jolting at the sound they froze in their steps.

'I think I left the door open. I'll go up and close it,' taking the leys back off of Don she turned to walk back up the stairs.

'No, I'll do it,' Don protested pulling her back.

'You go back make sure everyone is alright and tell the super to call the electricity company. I'll meet you in the room,' she looked down into the blue eyes and saw his worry and concern, 'I'll be fine,' she reassured him and quickly placed a kiss on his lips before walking back up the stairs towards the roof.

As she carried on up Jess kept thinking of her and Don. They'd probably made their relationship official to each other that night, devoting themselves to each other, but they were still unsure as to what to exactly tell everyone else. Jess was cool with keeping it quiet, Don wanted to tell Danny to keep him from asking anymore, but there were risks. Risks in everything. Knowing Danny he'd tell Lindsay who'd tell Stella who'd tell Mac who'd tell the Captain and once the Captain knew all hell would break loose. Jess just hoped that for once, Don would trust her, and believe her when she said it was better if no one knew.

As she reached the top step there came another bang and clatter. This time not from the door, swaying in the wind, but something falling over. Jess cautiously entered the room, torchlight high, illuminating everything in front of her. There shouldn't be anyone up there, no one was with them when her and Don came to inspect. As she searched the room quietly she half felt relieved it was empty, but still, inside, wished she had her gun, just in case. Lowering her torch she found there was nothing in there, nothing but some janitor's equipment and old bits and bobs.

Gripping the door handle to leave she was suddenly blinded by a towel wrapped around her face, attempting to scream and kick away, her attack's grip tightened around her and she soon felt the lack of air become too much. She was drifting slowing in and out of sleep and soon felt its weight to be too much. Falling, the ground came almost too welcoming as her whole world suddenly became darkness.

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Don stood by his open front door leaning against it casually. He checked his watch again and found only 5 minutes had gone by since he last checked it. _Where is she? _he asked himself becoming ever so worried about Jess. She'd gone up to inspect the generator room one more time as it seemed they didn't close the door properly but that was over 20 minutes ago.

'Pam,' he asked his neighbour who existed the adjacent apartment to enter back into hers, 'you haven't seen my friend have you? The tall brunette I had staying?'

'No,' she answered before opening her own door.

Don wondered for a moment, before deciding it best if he go up stairs and check for her. But before leaving he quickly jogged to his side desk and pulled out his gun from the top draw. Jess wasn't in some sort of trouble, he hoped, but it was always best just in case.

Quickly jogging up the last flight of steps he found his self face to face with the roof door which swayed slowly in the cool, evening breeze from the other panelled window inside. They'd seen the open window before but took no notice of it.

'Jess,' he called out causally, 'Jess.'

There was no reply.

'Jess,' he took a few more steps forward before he felt something hit against his foot. Turning his flashlight down, his heart began pounding a little faster, there was a torch lying on the ground the bulb cracked and piece of glass scattered across the floor.

'Jess!' he called out, more seriously this time, his heart picking up speed.

'Jess!' searching in every corner of the room he found nothing, no signs of her, nothing.

His heart almost stopped when it all came together. She was gone.

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**A/N: **Just to let you know I am NOT an electrician so have no idea what I was talking about when they were in the generator room… Nor do I actually know whether apartment blocks have generator rooms on the roof. So, there you go, one more instalment and while exam day looms closer this might need to get cut down for the next 3 weeks ish… But I'll try my best. Toddles and don't forget to review my wonderful little readers…

('Toddles'- I am way to happy for my own good right now)


	17. Chapter 17: In and out of darkness

**In and out of darkness **

**Summery: -**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **

**--------**

Stella watched as Don sat himself on the stairs of his apartment. She noticed he was turning pale and the brightness of his eyes had turned a dull and vacant blue. Walking over she sat herself next to him. His head was buried in his arms, concealing himself from the prying eyes of the department and his neighbours.

'Hey, everything's going to fine alright,' she said rubbing a hand across his back.

'I don't believe it. It just… can't be happening,' Don rubbed his hands over his face and down the back of his neck trying to collect himself. He'd been in a state of panic an hour earlier. He didn't know what to do. He'd rushed down stairs checked his apartment and even the main lobby just looking for her. He'd never felt so scared in his life. Fear, panic, terror, all sorts of feelings and emotions were flooding him as he finally picked up his cell and dialled Stella. It felt horrible and strange and he didn't know who else to call but she was comforting, her steady seriousness calmed him as she assured him she'd get a team down there as soon as possible. He waited on the front steps of his apartment until he heard the sirens pull up around the corner. Mac had greeted him, asking him to run through everything and anything he could remember. He felt horrible though, trying to recall what might happen. The thoughts of what actually happened to Jess were over whelming him. Was she kidnapped? Who was her abductor? Did this have anything to do with her previous case? Why Jessica?

'Don, we'll find her,' he looked up and stared straight at Stella, 'I promise.'

Don gave a sigh and relaxed himself, not enough to forget what was happening but enough to stop him from having some sort of panic attack.

'Detective,' a uniform came up to Stella and Don, 'Detective Taylor needs a word with you in your apartment.'

Don nodded, stood and followed the officer. Around him, cluttering the small corridor of the floor, he past officers, detectives, CSIs, everyone was trying their best to help, to find Jess. She was a police officer, she was family, and they all had vengeance on their mind for her abductor.

'Don, sit down,' Mac gestured to the dinning table chair pulled out next to him. 'I know this might be hard, but I need you to go through with me everything that happened one more time.'

He knew it was procedure, he knew Mac needed to do this, he didn't want to but just like how they'd forced Jess to tell her story over and over again Don was forced to tell his.

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She could feel herself begin to stir, waking from a long sleep. Her body felt restless, in need of movement but she felt herself trapped. Wriggling around, still with her eyes closed, she felt her hands tied together behind her and her feel bound beneath her. She was lying on her side, pressed up against a cold stone floor. She opened her eyes slowly, the light blinding her for a moment as her eyes started to focus, slowly at first but she began making out object soon enough. She had no idea how long she was out she wasn't worried about that right now, she wanted to know where she was, what was happening to her and who had done this.

Inching from side to side she attempted to struggle her way out of the ropes but failed. Lying facing the ceiling she tried to make out her surroundings; hard, cold floor, stale, moist smell, soft hum of a radio somewhere in the background.

'I'm not letting you go,' a voice crept up from behind her as the sound of heavy boots on the concert floor moved towards her. 'After everything you've done to me I can't just let you get away with it.'

'Who are you?' she finally crocked out, 'What do you want with me?'

'I want you to stop taunting me!' the voice was shouting now. It was a man's voice, deep husky, accented.

'What have I done to you?' she needed to keep him talking, get to expose as much as he could.

'You, you don't even know who I am. You pass me every single day, you even came into the shop and you didn't even notice,' his voice was rising. Frustration, angry, annoyance was all visible in his voice. 'I tried to make you notice. I tried to speak to you but you were too buys, you were too preoccupied, you and that studio boyfriend of yours!'

'What? Who? What are you talking about?' she tried to turn herself to see him but he stepped into the darkness, concealing himself.

'You don't even care do you? Everything will be alright if you just listen to me! I'm not going to hurt you, not if you just listen to me!'

'Just tell me okay! Tell me what you want!'

'No, not now,' he stepped back into the light now but before Jess could see anything she felt herself being thrown back by the kick of his boot, knocking her out once again.

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Don sat at Stella's desk fiddling with the file in front of him. He'd read it, dozens of times over in the past half hour, and along with every line his heart stopped a beat.

_...starved for up to 48 hour…_

…_strangulation…_

…_several bruises and contusions… _

…_signs of concussion… _

…_signs of abuse and possibly even tortured… _

He felt he couldn't stomach reading the rest of the coroner's report. The tale of Jessica Jones was a horrid one. A country girl moves to the big city with big hopes and dreams, takes on a job at a local kindergarten, lives happily and alone until she is kidnapped, held a prisoner, tortured, beaten and then finally strangled to death. The killer was never caught. He couldn't do that to Jess. He couldn't let them find her body tomorrow and not find a killer.

'Don,' Stella knocked lightly on the glass door and walked into her office clutching a set of papers looking bright and hopeful, 'We've got some results. Want to hear?'

Don nodded, letting go of the file rolled tightly in his hands.

'the finger prints we collected from the window and so of the appliances from the inside of the generator room came back to Diego Thomas,' she paused after that, looking as if she was going to continue but stopped. Her eyes flickered down to the sheet in front of her. He could see her mind was debating on telling him the rest but he needed to hear it. If the angel on her shoulder couldn't win the battle he'd make her say it himself. 'We don't know where he's take her. We have no CCTV footage, he hasn't returned to his apartment and there is no other known residence or lot or anything.'

'Jessica Jones was found in a dumpster,' his voice was shallow, soft but harsh and regretful. 'I don't want her to be found like that.'

'No Don,' Stella jumped in, 'we filled her, if he sticks to him MO then we've got another 36 hours. She safe alright,' Don looked up vacant and emotionless, she took his hand in hers, 'I promise.'

There came another soft knock at the door as Danny stood surveying them, 'I think I've got something.' He held a list in one hand a cup of coffee in the other. 'This is for you,' he popped the coffee next to Don, 'You gotta eat something too, you look horrible.'

The sun was peeping up onto the horizon and the promises of a new day brought horrors for Don. He hadn't eaten or slept since he realised she was gone. None of the team had either but the burden of known that it should be him out there and not Jess was haunting him. It kept his mind thinking, it kept him hoping they'd find something but dreading the thought of precious minutes going by.

'I got a list of all the tenants from the super and get this, there's an apartment registered to a Davros Thomas, two floors above Don. I've got Adam running the phone number we got since it doesn't register to our Diego so I'm thinking either he picked up a new cell when he got this apartment 4 months ago or we're looking at a family member helping.'

Danny hoped his words might spark a bit of sense of accomplishment in Don but seemed to fail when he still looked pale and miserable.

From the marble hall the three detectives could hear a soft pattering coming from down the hall, turning to see Adam ran towards Stella's open office door, 'I got us a guy.'

'The phone number?' Danny asked.

'Yeah, apparently Diego has a brother by the name of Davros Kingston Thomas and that's the brother's apartment. I got a current address from the cell network company and they're faxing all the details in now,' Adam smiled, rising his eyebrows at the detectives. 'How'd you like that!' he said finishing off his statement.

Stella and Danny gave a chuckle before Danny turned to Don, 'Wanna come pick up this guy?' Don took a moment to think but eventually looked up and Danny was glad to see a little light come into his eyes.

--------

Jess could feel the warmth of the sun pouring down on her. The floor was still cold but the warm air gave a slight comforting feel to her situation. Slowly opening her eyes her head began throbbing. She could feel the side of her face turning sticky and when she brushed it against her jumper she saw the red stairs. The kick to the head must have been harder than she thought, not just did her headache feel more like a hangover but the small cut and graze of the side of her head was now caked with dry blood.

'They're looking for you,' the man spoke again. Jess could hear him from the other side of the room. She still didn't know where she was. There was the sound of the radio, humming, in the background, too far away for her to hear what was going on. 'A detective gone missing, the police department must be having a field day.'

'Who are you?' Jess crocked out, not actually listening to what he was saying but in need of finding some way out. Turning onto her back she gazed at her surroundings, a wide window to one side but all she could see wat the sky. Dirt and gravel under neither her as well as cold concert. There was a soft breeze coming from somewhere and the smell of salt – the sea, maybe?

'That doesn't matter. What matters is that you're here, away from everyone else, away from the world, away from people, you'll be safe here,' Jess turned again, she could see the back of her captor, he wasn't facing her. Did he not think she might get up and fight him? Maybe he knew she was too weak to. 'I just want you to be safe,' his voice was soft, sympathy and concern was present in his tone. His head was bowed down and his hands covered them. He was upset but at what?

'What exactly do you want from me?' Jess finally said lifting her aching body into a sitting position. Her hands were tied behind her, her feet bound underneath. He hadn't gagged her; did he not care if anyone heard them?

'I want you to be safe.'

'From who?'

'Everybody,' he got up from his seat, he still hadn't turned but his hands were in a tight grip that turned his knuckles white. 'Don't you see,' he turned to her now. He was tall, rugged, dressed in a thick brown coat, jeans and doc martins. 'I need you to be here with me, because here I can protect you,' he was walking over to her now, big strides, big purposeful strides. When he reached her he crouched down, 'I've wanted you for so long.'

'How long have you known me?' Jess tired to lean back, furthering the proximity between them.

'Years, we live in the same condo… but you never saw me,' he turned away from her, disappointed. 'I tried to make you see me but you never did. You were always with someone else or at work or with your friends,' his voice was rising, his temper too. 'All I wanted was you and you couldn't see that!'

He stood from crouching in front of Jess and grabbed her hair, forcing her to look up at him, 'Why didn't you see me? Why didn't you listen to me? Everything I did for you and you never notice, instead you used to stand there, in al your glory, your perfectness, I loved that. I loved you but you couldn't see that!'

He raised a fist and again the last thing Jess saw, before the haunting darkness was, his fist coming down at her.

--------

'Davros,' Don paced around his suspect, 'Where is he?'

'Who?' Davros Thomas was just like his brother, tall dark, Latino.

'Your brother, Davros. Who else?' Don slammed his hand against the table, Davros didn't flinch but from the other side of the table Danny did, worrying about Don - wondering if letting him do the interrogation was the best choice.

'I haven't seen him in ages!' Davros turned to look at Don.

'Then why is he living in your apartment?'

'He has a key! That apartment was just a sort of safe hold for my family. If anything ever happened then at least they had somewhere to go.'

'Did you know your brother was living there?' Don temper had calmed a bit but he was still shifty, waiting to pounce at anything that was said.

'No, he has his own apartment but I dunno maybe he got kicked out so he's staying there. He never tells me okay!'

'Listen,' Danny tired staying calm focusing on the task ahead, 'Do you if your brother has any other properties or anything like that?'

'No okay, I know for sure he doesn't because a few months ago he was asking for rent from my mom for his current apartment. He'd never be able to sustain another residence.'

'Okay, we're going to need to search you apartment then. The, um, other one not the one your staying in.'

'Yeah, sure go a head. Listen, I don't know what my brother has done okay, maybe you can tell me and I can help.'

Danny moved his gaze towards Don, but he just shook his head and moved to the corner of the interrogation room.

'We think your brother has kidnapped one of our officers,' Danny fed it to him simply, and quickly; he didn't want to dwell too much on the details.

'What? Why?'

'We found his prints in the room that our officer was last seen in. Also he was a suspect in a case a few years back with a similar MO. That case was never solved so we're thinking he might have committed both.'

'A female officer is missing right?' Davros asked it bluntly, acting a detective himself at the moment.

'Yeah.'

'I remember the case a few years ago, the police was certain he kidnapped the other girl but they had no proof.'

'Do you think your brother is capable of doing it?' Don asked this, turning his attention to Davros he listens intently from behind.

'Well, he's not well, he believes things that aren't real and acts strangely sometimes. I mean he's done strange things like kidnap our neighbour's dog when we were kids but I dunno if he's capable of kidnapping a person.'

'You said he's not well?'

'Well, he has anger issues, mood problems. He can be a real nice guy one second but hate you the next. He was a little troubled as a kid since our dad wasn't the best of fathers. He was an alcoholic, he used to beat my mom, sometimes beat us. Diego found it hard to socialise after that. So he kept to him a lot.'

There was moment of silence as Danny watched Don carefully, he'd gone pale again but before Danny could say anything he quickly turned to the door and left.

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**A/N: **Hope that was alright. Beware for I may not be posting much in the next few weeks due to it being Examination week tomorrow. So, review please and make my revision less painful. Thank you so much!


	18. Chapter 18: The Great Escape

**The Great Escape **

**Summery: -**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **The study bug took over the writing muse so this may not sound fluent. Too much text book reading I guess.

**--------**

'There's nothing here,' Lindsay walked out of the bedroom pulling off her latex gloves. The rest of the team were scattered around Diego's apartment but no on yet found anything circumstantial. The apartment was similar to the one in Jess' condo - simple, clean and empty. Diego lived a minimalist's life style finding no needs for random bits of knickknacks that would just end up being left around. He had a closet full of standard clothes, none of which Lindsay could find any trace on, and cupboards full of canned soup arranged neatly and orderly.

Don stood by the window flipping through Diego's post which was pulled out of the letter box at the front desk. Bills, bills, a letter from a development firm and a postcard form Aunt Mildred.

'What's SuperPlex?' Don asked tearing open one of the envelops.

'Isn't that the new shopping complex they were meant to build on the harbour?' Stella walked out of the kitchen into the living room.

Hawkes shook his head, 'No, I heard it was a new set of office blocks.'

'Story goes, it was meant to be a shopping complex but the development company ran out of money so sold it to brokerage firm who began build over it but then they ran out of money so currently it stands as a horrible little piece of unfinished architecture over looking the harbour bay,' Lindsay shrugged when she noticed everyone staring at her. 'What I read the paper.'

Don stop and wondered for a second; an unfinished building, a letter approving Diego on the purchase on one of the lots. 'The buildings not yet complete right, Lindsay?'

'No, they abandoned the project a few months ago until they can find the money to start building again.'

'Why? What you thinking Don?' Stella walked over to Don, leaning over his shoulder to read the letter.

He tried to piece it in his head before explaining it, 'If you were going to hold someone hostage where would you do it?'

The team stood quiet for a moment. 'Somewhere where no one knows your there and where no one can find you. Somewhere remote so no one can hear you,' Lindsay commented.

'How about an abandoned, incomplete building?'

--------

'You like classical music?' Jess leaned herself against the rocky pillar and watched her abductor place his feet up on a wooden create and leaned back in his garden chair. She'd been awake for around an hour now – the longest time so far. Her captor was quiet, clam, but unsociable. His back was still facing her and though she'd tried to keep the conversation going she couldn't find out anything about him. What she did know that he thought that everyone else in the world was a threat towards her and to him he was doing the right thing – keeping here, away from prying eyes.

'It keeps me calm,' he replied. His eyes closed, savouring the quite melody that seeped out of the radio. 'What about you?'

'It's alright.'

As the silence dawned on them once more a gull came swooping through the open window. Jess watched as it hopped from side to side along the unfinished floor. Just as the gull ducked its head to the ground Jess caught, out of the corner of her eye, a glistening reflection on the floor. Focusing on it more carefully she noticed it was a broken piece of glass, most probably from what used to be the open glass window. Carefully inching herself towards the shard she kept her eye of the back of her captor. He was slouched down in his chair, relaxed, unaware of what was happening around him. Cautiously dragging her self across she floor she was almost in reach of the glass. The sun was glowing brightly in the afternoon sky and the feel of the suns soft tipped rays pressing against her skin made her smile, the small glisten of hope of getting out of here and reached her.

Finally reaching the piece of glass Jess reached out with her tied hands to pick it up but losing her balance she quickly toppled to the side scaring the gull away. It rose off the ground in flight and darted for the open window leaving Jess lying motionless on the floor and her captor to sit up altered in his chair.

'What was that!' he said.

Holding her breath she replied quietly hoping he wouldn't turn around, 'What was what?'

'That sound. That sound,' he was standing now but didn't turn. Jess quickly pocketed the shard of glass and could feel it poke against her as she slid it carefully into her back pocket.

'Just birds,' she reassured him, crawling back to her original spot by the pillar.

'No, I can still hear it,' he turned to her now just as she leaned back but instead of walking towards her he shot past her to the open window. 'The police!' he cried. 'Can't you hear it the sirens. They've found us.'

Jess listened carefully and just as he said the small echoing of police sirens travelled across to her. They'd found her. They'd come to rescue her.

'You!' he suddenly turned to her, angry and disappointed. She quickly hid her smile. 'You led them here! You told them where we were!'

'What!' Jess said shocked. 'How was I meant to have told them where we are? I don't even know where we are!'

'You told them!' he accused her quickly walking to her side. He grabbed her hair and pulled her up. 'You betrayed me!' The back of his hand flew and slapped Jess across the face. Static pain shot through her body as he dropped her and she began spitting out blood.

'We've got to get out of here!' he ran to his things and grabbed everything, shoving them into a backpack. 'We have to get out of here before they find us!'

--------

The NYPD cars and trucks stretched to a halt in front of the abandoned complex. The CSI team piled out of the black SUV while Don exited from a department car. Uniforms and officers surrounded the parameter armed with their weapons while the rest suited up in their vests.

'Okay, we have a high unstable man in their holding an unarmed officer prisoner. He possibly has a gun. We know very little about him except that he's killed 2 people already. Our aim is to find Detective Angell and get her out safely while apprehending the culprit. Alright?' Mac informed the rest of the officers while everyone prepared themselves. 'We'll have people posted at each possible exit while we enter from the front. We need people surveying and canvassing each floor but according to our evidence he's taken residency on the 16th.'

Mac turned to Don who stood silently behind him, 'We'll get him okay.' Don nodded him head understandably. 'I don't want you to hold a grudge towards this man alright. You arrest the man and get him out of there – that's all nothing else.' Mac turned away and prepared with the rest of the team to enter. What did Mac think Don was going to do?

--------

'They're here. They're everywhere. We won't be able to get of here! This is all your fault,' he slapped her across her face again and this time she fell flat to the ground. Shaking her head slowly she tried to focus. Don and the team were here she needed to find away for them to find her.

'Quickly, we need to hide,' bending down in front of Jess he pulled a pocket knife and cut the rope around her feet. Grabbing her shoulder he pulled her up and forced her to walk. Entering a long corridor he dragged her up a flight of stairs before reaching a door. 'You need to wait in here.'

Opening the door he tossed in his backpack and pushed Jess in, 'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm just trying to protect you!' Pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket he tied it around Jess's mouth stopping her from screaming. He pushed her into a corner and before she could move, got up and shut the door, leaving Jess in darkness.

-------

Mac led the team silently through the building and up the stairs. Officers and uniforms drifted off searching other floors while the main team pursued up to find Jess. Reaching the 16th floor they quietly dispersed, checking every room of the floor.

'I found something,' Danny voice echoed through the empty floor. Walking in, gun still in hand they examined the area. The wooden create, garden chair and radio was still set up but no signs of Diego or Jess. Lindsay retrieved the CSI kit and the team began processing.

'We've checked every floor but no signs of anyone yet,' a uniform walked into the room and confronted Don and Mac.

'Keep looking. We need to find any evidence we can if he's taken her someone else.'

'Mac!' Stella called from the other side of the room. Bent over she fiddled with cotton buds and liquid. As the rest of the team came closer they held their breath and waited for the result and a sense of fear showered them when they noticed the colour change.

'Something definitely happened here – blood.'

'Its not enough to indicate that she was stabbed or shot or bleed out in anyway,' Hawkes surveyed the area following the splatters of blood that trailed across the floor. 'This looks fresh,' he called out moving towards the concert pillar. 'I found some hairs as well - long, brunette hair.'

Don could feel himself going pale, the fear, horror, concern of what had happened. He was sure that something had happened here but where was Jess now. What had her captor done to her?

--------

The room had no windows and only the one door. Pushing against it with her shoulder was a failure when the door didn't open so she had only one choice. Thrusting her hands deep into her back pocket she could feel the blood seep from her fingers when she came in contact with the glass. Fishing it out slowly she positioned the top of the glass to rest against rope as she carefully pushed it up and down hoping it would cut through the rope.

Finally feeling the looseness of the rope she tugged her hands apart but it wouldn't budge. In a state of panic the glass slipped from her fingers and in the darkness of the room she could hear its contact with the ground. Quickly dropping to her knees she fumbled for it and shards began tearing at her skin. Her fingers traced a flat smooth surface and she began lifting at it trying not to make it slip. Quickly pressed the side of the glass against the rope it began to weaken again and eventually came apart. Pulling the blind fold off, she could feel the blood drip from her fingers and down her face. She was free.

Searching around in the darkness Jess felt the backpack. Pulling it open she pulled out a torch light. As she turned it on her eyes caught a glimpse of something black shiny lying at the bottom of the bag. Pulling it out she realised it was a gun. She felt safe knowing she didn't had it but there was still a sense of doubt that he might just come back for it.

Scanning the torchlight over the room she carefully studied her surrounding. She stopped when she realised the sprinkler system above her. Following the pipes the lead to a handle position on the wall. Turning it on, she braced her fingers tightly around the gun. Gripping the trigger she lifted her hands, aiming at the sprinkler system. Praying that the water supply was connected to the pipe she pulled the trigger tightly causing masses of water to pour down over her.

--------

The team froze in their positions realising the sprinklers were on.

'Did anyone hear that?' Don muttered.

'The gun shot yeah,' Danny replied shaking off the water.

Turning to the door Mac lead the way, 'It's came from upstairs!'

As they reached the bottom of the stairs a shirking scream came from the floor above. The team froze in their stops, hands reaching down for their weapons. Their hearts stopped for a moment, they stood in silence, only the soft patter of the water could be heard until there came another scream.

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**A/N: **Hello, one week of exams to go and one more coming. Was meant to be studying for my science exam but got kind of bored so here's how I filled my time. This was a bit of an odd chapter especially since I forced myself to write it which personally I don't think was a good idea but I felt I needed to write other wise I'd lose interest in it by the time exam week was over. If you're lucky I think I can get another chapter up by the end of tomorrow before I forget how the whole scene ends. But for now, tell me what you think. If it's any help I love waking up in the morning to an inbox full of reviews XP


	19. Chapter 19: At the Stroke of Midnight

**At the stroke of midnight**

**Summery: -**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **I'm not good at suspense… Sorry.

**--------**

Light suddenly flooded into the room as Diego pulled open the door. 'What have you done!' he screamed at her. 'They'll find us! Do you want that?'

'I want to get out of here. If you really want to protect me or help you'll let them find me!' Jess's splintered fingers, still dripping with blood, held the gun in a tight grip. She didn't know what Diego was going to do but what ever it was she wanted to be prepared.

'No, I won't let them take you away from me!' take a leap towards Jess he grabbed her wrist. Bending it back, away from her he forced the gun out of her hand and she cried in agony as he twisted her wrist out of position. The gun dropped on to the puddle water and Diego dropped to his knees in search of it. Pulling it up he positioned it pointing it directly at Jess. He got ready to shoot it, 'You need to stop struggling. You will only get hurt!'

Jess stood carefully grounding herself, waiting for the opportune moment before lunging at Diego. Trying to take back possession of the gun he punched her hard in the stomach causing her to fall backwards gasping for air. 'Stop struggling,' he shouted. Grabbing a handful of Jess's wet hair she screamed as he pulled her up and placing an arm around her waist while the other held the gun firmly at the side of her head. 'I don't want to hurt you,' he said one last time before slamming the gun against her. 'I need you to trust me.'

Blood mixed with the water as the red liquid began dripping out of her wound. She felt nauseas and dizzy. She began to feel tried and suddenly the darkness began calling her. Sounds were simply echoing through Jess's head as she spun in and out of a daze. Her head was throbbing but somewhere between the pitter patter of the water and Diego mumbling to find a way out Jess could hear his voice.

'Don!' she called out!

'Jess,' came the reply as Don entered the room, gun in hand pointing it directly at Diego. 'Let go of her!' he said forcefully.

'No! I will not let you take her! She needs to be with me. I can't let her go,' Diego was getting frustrated, waving the gun around hysterically threatening to shoot anyone who took another step closer.

'Don, get me out of here,' Jess called one more time trying to squeeze out of Diego's grasp. He arm was placed tightly around her waist; he wasn't planning on letting go of her – not for anyone.

'Listen to me, we can talk this over,' it was Mac this time, trying to reason with him.

'No don't you understand, I need to be with Jessica. If I surrender you'll take her away from me.'

'Holding her hostage and threatening to kill us isn't going to help you. You will go to jail on the terms of kidnapping and attempted murder, not to mention assaulting on an officer.'

'But I've waited this long to be here. Why can't you see that?' Diego shouted back at the officers crowded in front of him.

In a bout of frustration Diego's gripped suddenly loosened from Jess's waist and she dropped to the floor. Scrabbling to her feet she began her escape. She lifting her weak and battered self off the wet and soaked ground she took a step towards Don and the crew.

The sound was like church bells ringing in the night. It echoed through out the abandoned construction site and rippled out into the open street. In the cool wet air of the room everyone's faced turned pale as Jess began to fall to the floor and Diego lowered his weapon. Two more shot were fired, louder, faster, aimed directly at Diego himself. Falling backwards he collapsed into an unconscious heap blood pooling slowly around his open wound.

'Jess!' Don ran to her side and pulled her up from the ground. 'Jess, look at me!' Don lifted her up slowly pushing away strands of damp, curled hair. Her eyes were closed and her mouth ajar. From a small opening in her shoulder blood began soaking her jumper. She was hit. 'Jess! Jess, wake up.' Don began applying pressure on the wound trying to stop the blood flow. He stared down at her. Frail and limp in his hands she was helpless. 'Help. Jess's been hit.'

Sounds of radio transmissions and chatter filled the back ground. All rational sense of thought had been pulled away while the chaos and havoc reeked in Don's mind. He couldn't make a decision on what to do – the temptation to save Jess's life was over whelming but seeing her, like a rag doll in his arms, he couldn't move. He felt himself suddenly been tugged away at great force from his protective embrace over Jess. Pushed into a small corner of the room Mac began shouting words and phrases that he couldn't hear. Past Mac's shoulder he could see Sheldon towering over Jess examining her shoulder. Stella had walked in front of his vision blocking his view of Jess.

'No, Don. Just stay calm. Listen to me, everything will be alright. We've got paramedic on the way. She'll be transferred to ER and everything will be fine. Listen to me Don. Can you hear me?'

'Yeah, I know.'

Mac forceful grip loosened from his shoulder as he turned back to the scene unfolding before them. Don slid down the slippery wall and sat silently in the corner while everything happened in front of him. Officers were running up and down everywhere, paramedics came in with stretchers and blue blankets. Water stopped falling from the sky but the sound of rushing water still rambled on in the background. Everything was moving at a constant speed, being pulled away from the crime scene. Officers left but few returned, CSIs were scattered with their silver kits processing. The room began emptier and emptier.

'Don,' Stella was crouched down in front of him, he'd been so dazed and worried about Jess he hadn't noticed her, 'Come on let's get you out of here.' She looped her arm around Don's and, using her strength, pulled him up.

'Jess-,' he began his sentence but was finished for him.

'-is at the hospital. She'll be fine. They'll call us once everything fine. We need you sorted out if you want to go see her.'

--------

The room was empty but he could see shadows moving around outside the tinted glass window. His fresh, dry clothes hung loosely on his body and the cup of coffee in his hands had since lost its warmth. He'd been waiting in the hospital room for the past 2 hours and watched people pass him bearing melancholy looks on their faces. Don had made the conclusion that if you ever wanted to see all emotions that could possibly be felt, sit, alone, in the waiting room of a hospital, silently, and watch. A lady crying in the corner. A man and little girl smiling at each other. Someone out side the room shouting and screaming. The nervousness and agitation of the man adjacent. Everyone was feeling something different but Don, he was feeling nothing. All emotions were drained from his body when he watched the paramedics carry Jess out on a gurney. Her frail, thin, small body being hauled up onto the stab, people gathering over her pressing and prodding at her wounds. He knew he would never be forgiven if he tried to rush to her side – Mac would have pulled him back, telling him that interrupting wasn't going to help. He'd made a promise to not let his emotions take over the case and he was going to stick with that no matter how he felt towards her. If he wanted this case to become successful the only way to achieve that was to let everyone else do their jobs. The CSIs would find the evidence to secure the case and everything would turn back to normal.

The day grew closet to night and people walked in and out of the room in a blur. Don was joined by fellow team mates who soon left while he sat, waiting patiently for Jess's recovery. 4 hours and 5 cups of coffee later Don was still sat uncomfortably in the hard plastic chairs but this time surrounded by the team. Night was dawning on them as Lindsay quietly dozed off, head resting on Danny's shoulder while Stella murmured inaudibly to Mac. Sheldon was in conversation with a fellow nurse while Don sat alone, clutching the paper cup hoping for the best.

When the hour struck and the clocks in the room hit midnight a Doctor finally entered, bracing himself in front of the team.

'Detectives,' he began, emotionlessly and frank.

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**A/N: **Exams are over and my muse has ran away from me – that's not a good thing =( Well, the exams being over bit is but the muse thing however, is not. Well, while I struggle to attempt to write something readable I'm hoping you people hang in there since we're almost finished. So, tell me what you think and help motivate me to write some more please! Thanks!


	20. Chapter 20: Goodbye My Almost Lover

**Goodbye My Almost Lover**

**Summery: -**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **I apologize, I am not a medical profession nor do I or have I ever paid attention in bio before XP so, if anything's medically wrong bear with me.

**--------**

'Detectives,' the doctor began, emotionlessly and frank. 'I have some good news and some bad news,' everyone sat to attention, waiting for the words that linger on his lips.

'We were able to extract the bullet from Detective Angell successfully, however,' he paused, eyes glancing over each and every one of the eagerly waiting team. 'She hasn't yet recovered from the surgery.'

There was the deafening moment of silence as everyone tried to process the doctor's words. 'What do you mean 'hasn't yet recovered'?' Sheldon asked.

'Well, everything's gone according to plan, there was nothing wrong with the procedure, it is just… she has yet to wake up. The concussions, minor fractures to her skull and not to mention stress and shock from the gun shot has well… slipped her into a coma. She hasn't woken from the procedure yet and we're not sure if she will. '

The room turned pale, all the faced drained of any source of life. Lindsay turned away, holding her hand to her mouth to stop the squeeze of distress leave her. Stella strained herself to show no emotion while Mac sooth her comfortably. Danny and Sheldon sat silently until Don stood up and walked over to the doctor.

'Can we see her?' he asked, quietly, solemnly. The doctor gave a small nod and led the team out of the confinements of the room and down the long, never ending corridors of the hospital.

Walking into a ward, Jess lay motionlessly and pale, eyes shut as the blue fluorescents from the ceiling washed over her. She was peaceful, the true angel her name bared but there was something missing. The heart and soul of her ripped away as her vacant mind drifted in a never ending sleep. The scene was too painful, to see a member of your team, weak and helpless, fighting for their life even more than they'd ever done before. Jess was a fighter; she endured anything and was determined to prove her strength. She worked for what she wanted and only took what she needed and gave everything else away. She never asked for anything in return for her duties while risking everything she had on a daily basis but today, it was different. Today it wasn't the same fighting they'd witness her to do, escaping for the evil clutches of her captor, here, they were witnessing her fighting against life, fighting against death, to over come everything and walk out a free person – not someone trapped in an unwilling body.

'Jess,' Don walked slowly and carefully to Jess's bedside taking his place in a small seat next to her. The rest of the team slowly crowding to watch her, captivated by her stillness.

'Jess?' Don asked again, quietly still, almost trying not to wake her. Her picked up her hands in his and stroked the back of it - skin still as smooth as porcelain but this time just as cold. Instead of her warmth and forever brightly glowing ambience she was a mass of nothing. No beams of joyfulness radiating from her. No glowing smile or twinkling eyes beckoning you closer. She was a wreck. Hair plastered against her forehead, skin pale and blotchy, lifelessness hovering an inch from death. There was nothing they could do.

Don sat silently, feeling the pain and torture she was putting him through by lying there. He'd known Jess all of 3 years. She arrived a rookie; fresh from college, she as determined to make a statement the moment she walked through for her interview. She had criminal knowledge as well as stance. The sexist comments never bothered her and she wasn't afraid of going in head on with another officer. She kept quiet, feeling no need to spread her background. If people knew, would they think her weak for possibly getting the job through connections? Don hadn't of known until almost a year ago. He knew her when she first joined the precinct. He was her mentor for three weeks until his replacement came through and took over. Three weeks spent showing her the ropes. The bond was weak then, but eventually they were assigned the same case and then partners. No one would have guessed, not even Don, himself, that one day their friendship would go strong and strong until the point when there was no boundaries between them any longer. However, maybe that wasn't their finest choice. They'd heard countless stories of partners who had gotten too fond of each other. The loss of them caused more than just a little significant pain. The emptiness and aching of the heart was too much to bear, officers normal quiet or got reassigned to dampen the memories but Don didn't want that. He feared that the separation of them in work would old cause him to reach out more. The urge to simple see her would over ride all better judgement so, was it simply better, to turn away now, in case she ever woke up, or stay and endure the countless amount of pain that would come with it?

Don failed to notice any sense of passing time through the hours he stayed, sat on the cold, hard plastic chair, waiting for Jess to wake. The team had arrived and left, other officers came by to visit, no one daring to say a word to Don. His humbleness and salience was enough to make a church cry out for noise but everyone knew what was going on in his head. They'd all either lost an officer or been in the presence of one badly hurt but the have the mutual emotional bond that they share would never pull him away from her.

'Don,' Mac arrived, 4 hours after the first glimpsed of Jess in the hospital room, to arrive to see Don still there, waiting. 'Don, you need to go home.' Mac was trying to be kind, sympathetic. He'd lost someone but in a different way to how Don was about to lose his lover. Claire was simply gone one day never to return, they was no need for the pain of suffering or a constant reminder that she may never wake up. The feeling of slowly, gradually losing someone, Mac thought, was much greater that losing them in a second.

'I'm fine here,' Don replied, eyes growing darker as minutes ticked by.

'No, Don. She'll be fine, under constant monitoring and care until we hear something. If she begins making recovery they'll call us and you'll be the first to know. I promise you.'

'Can you promise me she'll wake up?' Don asked quietly and respectfully. He didn't mean anything against Mac but Mac understood how much he wanted to be around Jess. If she was to accidentally pass away in the night Don would never forgive him self for not being there at that exact moment but he needed to get some rest. Almost 48 hours of sleep was nothing to Mac and maybe even Don but 48 hours of constant worry and anxiety was taking a toll on him.

'No, I can't but you know her, right Don?' he looked up at his towering senior, 'You know she would never leave without saying good bye.'

Don stole one last glance at Jess, her vacant lips, her empty eyes, her soulless presence. He was only going to be away for a few hours and he'd be back. He wanted to come back to see her looking better, healthier, happier.

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For once in her life, Jess felt lost and alone. She'd never been bothered with solitude. She lived alone, spent years without a partner and even though, when she was a child, she was constantly surrounded by her older brothers there was nothing in the world that felt worse than being the only daughter, playing alone, working alone, doing everything alone. But for some reason, here, right now in a place that she couldn't really understand, she felt lost and inconsolable. She couldn't help but feel lonelier now, than she'd ever been in her whole life. 28 years of solitude was nothing compare to how she felt. The cold, blank eeriness of what ever was in front of her was daunting. Her warm, happier memories were where she wanted to be. She remembered Don, his bright blue eyes, unruly black hair and funky colourful ties – they were all the things she wanted again. She needed to see him again. Even if it was only for a second she needed to get that one last honest glimpse of him in case anything happened. She didn't want anything to happen but somewhere in her heart she could feel herself being pulled away from life. She always knew it would be in the line of duty was what would bring her down but it felt too early. There was so much more she wanted to do, to see, to understand, leaving now would leave hundreds of questions unanswered, such as would her children have blue or brown eyes, would she really get that little suburban house she always wanted, is life as picturesque as people perceived it to be? Life was full of unknowns and mysteries that she felt she simply could not leave without understanding or experiencing. She couldn't leave without hearing him say thoughs three little words.

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**A/N: **I could just imagine 'Almost Lover' by A Fine Frenzy playing during Don and Jess's monologue (DYK that song was sung was in 401 but the actual singer? 'Course you knew that!)


	21. Chapter 21: A Risk Worth Taking?

**A Risk Worth Taking?**

**Summery: -**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **Sorry the last chapter was very impromptu.

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She twitched in the intense lighting, aching to open her eyes, but she knew the instantaneous brightness was not how she wanted to great the world. Slowly turning her head away from the glowing light, that was visible from behind her close eyes, she began to slowly open them. White was her first stage of vision. Blue was her next. Colours began merging with each others as she opened her eyes further. She hadn't expected to see anyone there. She expected her self to be alone in a white washed hospital ward with IV tubes and heart monitors in every corner. She wasn't half wrong though. There was heart rate monitor to her right; the slow monotonous bleeping reassured her of her aliveness. A drip was attached to the back of her left wrist and a clear solution was slowly being past through her veins. As her vision became steady, the outline of a person became clearer but it wasn't a vision she expected to see. Don was her obvious first choice of spectator at her glorious awakening however, in the seat, placed next to her bed, sat neither Don nor any other obvious work colleague but instead,

'Ms. Croft?' the words left Jess quietly but audible in the small, empty room.

'Hello,' she simply reply, smile beaming back at Jess. She was dressed in her normal moth-eaten full length skirt and frilled shirt. 'I'm glad you are wake. I hope you feel fine.'

Jess hadn't given much thought to it and as she moved her body into an sitting position pain overcame her. She realised she couldn't move her left arm for the pain was too great and as for the rest of her body, it felt like a hangover mixed with the feeling of being hit by a car. Every part of her body ached and her head was throbbing in beat with the heart rate machine.

'What are you doing here?'

Picking a chocolate out of a gift wrapped box Ms. Croft looked up at Jess, 'Oh, I thought I would come visit you. After all you could have been killed yesterday, I'm glad you're alive,' she stopped and even though Jess was bound to a bed her detective sense were still on high alert. Ms. Croft's tone indicated she had more to say, 'Well, actually I just wanted to say how sorry I am. All of this shouldn't have happened if only I had been more careful.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, I knew Diego Thomas was going to come after you. I mean after what he did to my niece I wasn't going to let him get away with it again and especially not with you. You don't deserve this.'

'I don't understand – how did you know he was going to come after me?'

'Well, you must have heard about the case against Jessica Jones, she was my niece,' Jess thought for a second. The case from a few years back, the culprit was never caught but Diego was a suspect. 'Everyone knew that Diego had done it, there was just no evidence to back up everyone's 'gut feeling',' Ms. Croft gave a sad sigh, 'I should have watched over you more, I knew this was going to happen.'

'You knew the first victim. You knew he was going to come after me because we shared similar features and traits. Why didn't you say anything?'

'I couldn't. Who was going to believe an 80 year old woman? Everyone thinks I'm senile but no one knew that my husband used to be a detective, I learnt lots off of him – like how to spot a culprit,' she smiled at Jess, remembering the old times, 'I tried to help, I made sure you were never alone when you were around the apartment,' _the Laundromat, _'I even tried to get the police's attention diverted to Diego,' _the mystery phone call, _'I guess none of that worked, he still caught you.'

'No,' Jess called out, 'it did help! No one would have suspected Diego if you hadn't called Mac. You lead him to us.'

Ms. Croft gave a heart warming smile towards Jess, 'Yes, maybe, in a way I did help but you still got hurt, so I didn't protect you the way I wanted to.'

Jess toned down her voice, looking straight into Ms. Croft's blue tinted eyes, 'If it wasn't for you I would still be out there and probably right now be dead. Thank you, so much.' Jess reached out with her hand to lay it on top of Ms. Croft's. Her hands were smooth but cold, wrinkly yet strong, her hands were made for comforting.

'Now, listen. I must dash, it's getting late. You should get someone to see to you now that you're up,' she stood up from the hard plastic chair and grabbed her walking cane. 'I'll see you back at the apartment when you feel better.'

With one last smile and wink she got up and left the room. Jess lay there for a moment simply wondering, how on earth she could possible do that. Ms. Croft had saved her life.

'Jess!' From the ajar door Jess could just see out and running towards her ward was Lindsay. 'I am so glad you're alive!' Leaning on Jess's fail, bed ridden body Lindsay squeezed Jess into a hug. Trying to contain her pain she smiled up at Lindsay.

'What are you doing here, now?'

'Oh, thought I'd pop in before going down to the precinct. Can you wait a second I need to call everyone!' Lindsay was jolly, hyper and happy, she turned away to make the phone call to the rest of the team and even though her back was constantly to Jess she leaned over her shoulder every so often to check up of her. Her eyes bright with bewilderment – almost like seeing Jess was unexplainable.

'Everyone thought you were going to make it,' Lindsay was sitting in the hard plastic chair watching as a doctor examined Jess. Scanning her cast arm up and down he checked her bandages and handed her a set of pills.

'Why? What was wrong with me?' Jess had lots of questions she couldn't answer – what happened, how long was she out, where was Don?

'Well, according to Sheldon he said you had several fractures around your skull, possibly causing some concussion. Also, besides getting hit by a bullet you were pretty torn up. Your fingers were sliced deep.'

Jess's eyes diverted down to her bare hands lying limp by her sides. Most of it was exposed but certain small areas were plastered up. White cuts trailed along her fingers and palms and it began coming back to her; the glass shard she kept in order to escape, how she constantly was dropping it and searching again with her bare hands. She still could feel the acute pain sending shocks through her arm every time the glass pierced her skin.

'I remember the doctor said that if you feel really weak and always tired it because you haven't eaten in 2 days. He starved you didn't he?'

Jess nodded. She hadn't thought about it but it was true, her stomach was grumbling and she felt empty; she wanted desperately to get rid of the emptiness and hollow feeling starvation resembled.

Somehow it didn't feel like work. She didn't need to force herself to recall every little aspect that happened – she remembered everything clearly. In her job, she was constantly interviewing victims who had trouble piecing their memory together after traumatic events but Jess; she could remember everything up to the smell of Don's cologne when he grabbed her frail, battered, gun-shot wounded body. It wasn't hard to recall everything, yes what she went through was traumatic but as much as she wanted to black everything out she kept visualising it.

'Everyone's really worry. I don't think Don's had any sleep over this.'

Jess began recalling event as early back as the day all this started but one moment stood out amongst all others. It was the Friday morning, after her burglary. She'd had an altercation with Don the previous night and even though she swore she'd be angry at him, his words changed all her feelings for him -_ 'I care for you so much that if anything happened to you I don't know what I would do. I don't think I could carry on.' _She was inches from death, close enough to feel the cool, claming breeze that surrounded the white light to know that dying would hurt him more than it would hurt her.

'Jess?' The remark was surprising and though Jess knew she should be hurt for thinking that her colleagues didn't think she would pull through she knew they could never stop worrying.

Mac, Stella, Sheldon and Danny walked through the doors and into her ward. Their faces were brimming with bright smiles and heart warming gestures of fruit baskets and flowers. She felt happy and loved and more now that she'd ever done. It was almost a perfect way of returning back to reality.

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After the team left Jess to continue back at work she began feeling a sudden wave of disappointment pass through her. She'd realised that Don hadn't arrived with the rest of the team and she was well aware that the news of her consciousness had been past through the precinct and the lab so that even on-duty officers took the time to call up and explain their joys of hearing the news. She couldn't help thinking that his absence was her fault. She could only image the sort of trauma Don must have gone through but him not turning up was something she couldn't explain. She wanted to know that he didn't blame himself for everything that had gone wrong and that he wasn't being held back by this in anyway.

'Hey,' she'd been so submerged in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed the soft, familiar voice come from the open door of her ward.

'Hey,' she called back, smiling, as he approached her. He was pale and his tiredness was showing in his blue eyes. She'd studied the significant glow of his eyes for hours on end on a slow day at the precinct and could tell that today the brightness had left him and a shadow was being cast over him preventing his true colour from being shown.

'How you feeling?' he sat down on the chair by her bed and lent over resting his elbows on his knees. There was no sense of connection in his voice. A statement that sounded more like it had come from a distant colleague she'd met once than someone she had true feelings for.

'Battered and bruised but…. alright.' Jess forced a smile but she could tell there was something on Don's mind. His atmosphere was missing. There was no joy and happiness and she almost began to feel jealous there wasn't more of a connection between them.

'Listen Jess-'

'No,' she cut him off; he looked up from the floor biting his lip. She wasn't sure what he was going to say, but she needed to tell him her side of the story before he changed her mind. All sorts of emotions had been running through her head in the past few hours from happiness to mystery and joy but right now she felt lost, more so than when she had to make a choice – here or heaven. 'I can't do this.'

'What?' he replied softy, not breaking into any tension. His words were flat and he fidgeted in agitation. He was nervous when he walked in but her words worried him even more.

'You said to me once that you'd never be the same if something happened to me,' she paused but he didn't reply – she didn't want him to... not yet, 'All this, it got me thinking… and I don't want to hurt you anymore.'

'Jess,' he tired to stop her from continuing. He didn't want to hear it.

'No, let me finish. I can't let this get between us. I heard what happened to you from moment I was kidnapped up until now and I kept thinking that… I can't do this to you.' Jess could feel her voice cracking in the uneasiness of the situation. She didn't want it to end like this but it never actually started. 'I can't hurt you. I can't make life hard for you and I know officers who jumped into romances and relationships that never ended well and I don't want something to happen to me and for you not be able carry on. I can't do that to you… I'm not worth it.'

Don simply shook his head, 'You are.'

'All this torment?' she asked, 'all this constant wondering and fear of what might happen, what has happened to me – I bet you couldn't sleep, I bet even when you dreamt you dreamt of me. I bet that you didn't know what to do, you felt lost.'

He nodded.

'If I'd died-'

'No,'

'Listen, 'if' I'd died, what would have happened?'

She could see him question himself.

_What would he have done?_

'You wouldn't have been able to continue, right?' Jess could feel a tear drip down her face. 'I can't let that happen, Don. I can't make you go through all the torture and self hatred; I'm not letting you blame your self for anything that might happen to me. I care for you to much.'

'I understand but this is not the way Jess,' jumping from the chair Don slid to his knees at the side of her bed and took her hand in his. 'I understand the risks, the endless horrors we're probably putting ourselves through but this isn't the way.'

'There isn't any other way,' Jess looked deep into the bottomless pits of Don's bright blue eyes.

'There's no risk in being safe.'

'What?' Jess was lost.

'You always said this job brings risks and dangers that we have to face everyday. We risk our lives everyday and everyday we could be killed or saved. This is just one of the risks we have to take. It's just like another pursuit; we must step in and risk ourselves in order to understand the situation, to understand them.'

Jess tried to conceal her smile but several more tears began dripping down her cheek. 'Only you can associate our relationship with a raid.'

Don smiled back at her.

'So?' he asked. 'Are you willing to take this risk? To jump into the unknown and see where it takes us? You'll never know if you're doing the right thing unless you actually try.'

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**A/N: **And that is actually the end.  
I hoped you enjoyed and understood my writing. I know it's a pathetic ending but I think it's a good place to stop otherwise there'd be a WHOLE new story to follow. If it's any consolation I took AGES to writer the last bit between Don and Jess. It took me at least 3 days of writing and rewriting and understanding what I was actually writing. So, to all who have STUCK with me all this time – I bid you a happy reading and thank you.  
Enjoy!

Oh, and do tell me what you thought XP


	22. Epilogue: A better life

**Epilogue: A ****better life**

**Summery: -**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI NY

**A/N: **Yeah okay the last chapter WAS the last chapter unless you count this XP

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It was bright in New York that morning. The sun was just touching the tips of the trees and the tall shadows of the New York skylines painted themselves out along the streets and path ways and just the same, as any ol' day in New York, at 7 in the morning people were up and everywhere. Streets bustling with pedestrians, the roads packed with cars and Central Park hosted itself for all the commuters to take advantage of the wonderful weather for a walk through its luscious greenery and cooling breeze.

It had been four weeks since the day it started and a week since she'd been released from the hospital. She was happy now, to escape from the whiteness of the hospital wards and the constant monitoring of nurses and doctors but still something inside felt lost and missing. As if, when they extracted the bullet from her, they'd taken away a part of her. She had to admit she was happy not have an infested bullets lodged in her shoulder but she felt like a weight was being rested on them.

Jess was sat on the hood of the silver sedan glinting in the sun as she stared up at the tall grey condo in front of her. She cradled her arm though there was very little need to due to it being out of the cast but after weeks of just having done so she found it hard not to. Over the past few weeks she had remained quiet, barely talking, barely socializing. She hadn't returned to her apartment until the previous day and entering it brought back fearful memories she intended on keeping hidden for a long time to come. Walking into the chaotic mess that still had to be cleared up she realised what kind of events she'd been through and it all started here. On a Wednesday. Four weeks ago.

'Jess?' Don came trudging down the steps of the condo. He was happy, happier than Jess possibly. It was a changed from how she'd first seen him after waking from her coma and though she didn't share the same feeling of love and happiness he did she defiantly felt it radiate from him.

'Do you want me to help you?' she said jumping off the front of the sedan. Don walked to the boot of the car and pulled out the last box.

'No, I'm fine.'

'Look you've been working for the past few hours why don't you let me,' Jess began reaching out for the brown cardboard box in his hands but he pulled it out of reach.

'No, I am not allowing you to carry anything this heavy. Your arms still not healed well yet.'

Jess tossed her head back in frustration as she followed Don back up the stairs of the condo and into the cooling lobby.

'Don, I'm fine. The doctor said I'm fine and I can continue back as normal. He even said I can go back to work!'

'Yeah, and you will be assigned a desk job for the next few weeks. I'll see to that.'

'Don, but that's not fair! You can't keep me held down forever.'

They were already half way up the stairs before he stopped. 'No,' he began, 'not forever, just until I feel you are fit to carry on as normal.'

'Let me prove that I can carry on as normal by helping you,' Jess followed Don up the stairs and opened the door of the fifth floor for him. 'Please?'

'Maybe later we'll see what you're up to,' Don gave a cheeky smile and raised an eyebrow before pushing open the door of his apartment and stepping it.

'That's not fair!' she called back at him from outside his apartment.

She had not expected everything to turn out like this. She actually never expected everything to turn out so well. She expected there to be tension, uneasiness and failure between them but instead everything was positive. After Don had gotten the 48 hours of missed sleep, after Jess had awoken, he'd arising with new desires and ideas and had begged Jess to do this.

She didn't want to agree at first but then she admitted that it was perfect for them as she couldn't bear to stay in her old apartment. So why not. If things didn't work out, it was simple – she'd just move out but he was determined to make things work.

'Jess.'

She turned and looked down the hall where Stella began walking towards her.

'Hey,' Jess called out embracing Stella in a hug. 'What are you doing here?'

Stella gave a smile, her kind considerate, her 'your still the bestest thing in the world' smile, 'I wanted to come over and apologise.'

'For what?'

'Mac and I won't be able to make it tonight for your open house celebration.'

'Aww, why not?'

'He's planned something apparently and I'm hoping it's not as extravagant as the last event he planned,' the two girls laughed at the memory of Stella birthday, 'So, I thought I'd give you this to make up for it. It's from me and Mac.'

She handed Jess a bottle of wine. The cool bottle was heavy in Jess's hands but she accepted it gratefully intrigued by the vintageness.

'Wow, it brilliant but I'm so sorry you can't make it but then again have fun! I hope it's better than this sorry little party.'

Another one of Don's idea, Jess's welcoming party, the open house which would establish their relationship to the rest of the crew.

'I wish I was here, I really do but we'll make it up to you. Maybe me and Mac can take you and Don out for dinner one night?'

'Oh, a double date?' Don came out of the apartment and waved a hello to Stella.

'Well, I wasn't really thinking that,' Stella started, 'but yeah, why not.'

The three shared a smile.

'Look, I really should go – work. Have fun tonight and can't wait to see you back at work Jess.'

'Yeah me too,' she murmured to herself.

Stella walked back down the hallway hair curls bobbing up and down as she walked. Don took the bottle of wine from Jess's hands and studied the label.

'Wow, good stuff,' he said. 'Why don't we open it now, see where it takes us?'

Jess raised an eye brow at her partner, 'What are you implying?' she muttered staring up into his bright eyes.

'Oh, something involving us being 'inside' my apartment,' his hands slithered their way around her waist. 'Something I think you will really enjoy.'

'Oh, yeah,' she replied sliding her arms around his neck. 'Will it fun?'

'I think so,' Don replied placing a soft, short kiss on her lips. He retreated slightly only to star deep into Jess's brown eyes contemplating the possibility of him loosing her again. He promised her he wouldn't think of it – saying that if anything happened to either of them they wouldn't be wallowed by depression but instead simply carry on.

'Don?'

'Yeah?'

'Do you love me?'

'Of course I do.'

'Really?'

'Yes. I love you, Jessica.'

She smiled.

'I love you too, Donald.'

Their lips came together again as they manoeuvre back into the apartment. Lost in the moment all Jess could concentrate on was thoughs three small words that made a whole new difference to the situation. She suddenly felt the small gaping hole that once contained a bullet was filled with the joyous, caring, love Don felt for her. He loved her and in the way he said it she knew there was nothing that could sound sweet or more perfect in the whole world.

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**A/N: **Okay now I think we can safely assure there will be no more. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I have writing and you have no idea the feeling of accomplishment I am going through right now! I have never, ever, done something this BIG before or LONG and it's just wonderful to know I am capable of it! =D Please review on what you thought not just of this chapter but the WHOLE story.  
Message to anyone and everyone who has ever read this – give me ONE small review on what you thought – good, bad or ugly stand it… I need to know what you thought! Send me a PM even if you want to criticise it and don't want the world to know!

Lots of love now and forever LyzabethSay!


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